Shaw DNS Issues? (Resolved, changed DNS servers)

Mr. Analog · May 29, 2010, 11:09:17 PM

Is anyone else having issues with Shaw DNS today?

I can reach most sites but in particular deviantArt is not resolving for me (and I go on there pretty much every day).

Very annoying, I did an online (zoneedit.com) DNS lookup of deviantart.com and it came back as 8.10.77.140, which I can ping, but if I try to navigate to that IP with my browser there is a redirect to the domain name and it fails.

I tried editing my host file with the IP and that didn't work :-/

I'm pretty sure this is a Shaw only problem as I can hit deviantart.com through the Telus network (phone) and doing ping through a third-party site seems to work.

Very annoying!

Anyway, I'm hoping this is something that will get fixed for tomorrow, I'm running a contest and most of my entrants are in the US (which is celebrating Memorial Day this weekend). Hopefully they are reading my twitter to figure out where I am!

Tom · May 29, 2010, 11:19:42 PM

Switch to OpenDNS or something. I stopped using Shaw's DNS servers years ago.

Mr. Analog · May 29, 2010, 11:21:04 PM

Quote from: Tom on May 29, 2010, 11:19:42 PM
Switch to OpenDNS or something. I stopped using Shaw's DNS servers years ago.

Details plz

Mr. Analog · May 29, 2010, 11:23:08 PM

What about Google Public DNS?

Mr. Analog · May 29, 2010, 11:29:44 PM

Okay, I resolved it by using Google Public DNS

For Tonnica's sake (who is likely having this problem as well) here's a quick "how to"
http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using.html

Tom · May 29, 2010, 11:43:06 PM

Yeah, Google aught to work as well. Also You can set your router to use google dns, and then you won't have to change any settings on your computers.

Mr. Analog · May 30, 2010, 12:15:59 AM

Quote from: Tom on May 29, 2010, 11:43:06 PM
Yeah, Google aught to work as well. Also You can set your router to use google dns, and then you won't have to change any settings on your computers.

I would do so but I can't seem to find the setting.

Mr. Analog · May 30, 2010, 12:18:10 AM

Quote from: Mr. Analog on May 30, 2010, 12:15:59 AM
Quote from: Tom on May 29, 2010, 11:43:06 PM
Yeah, Google aught to work as well. Also You can set your router to use google dns, and then you won't have to change any settings on your computers.

I would do so but I can't seem to find the setting.

DERP DERP I just found it...

Lazybones · May 30, 2010, 12:33:27 AM

I have tested opendns and google dns but went back to my local shaw dns because the latancy was horrid on them.

Tom · May 30, 2010, 12:45:11 AM

Quote from: Lazybones on May 30, 2010, 12:33:27 AM
I have tested opendns and google dns but went back to my local shaw dns because the latancy was horrid on them.

I use my own caching bind instance. Shaw's DNS goes out, or gets glitchy WAY too often.

Mr. Analog · May 30, 2010, 06:32:14 AM

Quote from: Tom on May 30, 2010, 12:45:11 AM
Quote from: Lazybones on May 30, 2010, 12:33:27 AM
I have tested opendns and google dns but went back to my local shaw dns because the latancy was horrid on them.
I use my own caching bind instance. Shaw's DNS goes out, or gets glitchy WAY too often.

This is the second time now since I've been on the service that it's gone out (very annoying). Borked DNS when just one site goes down is not my first guess.

When it goes back to normal I may switch back.

Tom · May 30, 2010, 12:51:37 PM

Quote from: Mr. Analog on May 30, 2010, 06:32:14 AM
Quote from: Tom on May 30, 2010, 12:45:11 AM
Quote from: Lazybones on May 30, 2010, 12:33:27 AM
I have tested opendns and google dns but went back to my local shaw dns because the latancy was horrid on them.
I use my own caching bind instance. Shaw's DNS goes out, or gets glitchy WAY too often.

This is the second time now since I've been on the service that it's gone out (very annoying). Borked DNS when just one site goes down is not my first guess.

When it goes back to normal I may switch back.

I guess it takes a whole lot of crazy to notice every single outage they have

Lazybones · May 30, 2010, 12:59:20 PM

Quote from: Tom on May 30, 2010, 12:45:11 AM
Quote from: Lazybones on May 30, 2010, 12:33:27 AM
I have tested opendns and google dns but went back to my local shaw dns because the latancy was horrid on them.
I use my own caching bind instance. Shaw's DNS goes out, or gets glitchy WAY too often.

Well that would be the best solution.. Nothing beats running your own DNS however it is a bit of a PITA to maintain for home use.. as it complicates things..

Tom · May 30, 2010, 01:04:41 PM

Quote from: Lazybones on May 30, 2010, 12:59:20 PM
Quote from: Tom on May 30, 2010, 12:45:11 AM
Quote from: Lazybones on May 30, 2010, 12:33:27 AM
I have tested opendns and google dns but went back to my local shaw dns because the latancy was horrid on them.
I use my own caching bind instance. Shaw's DNS goes out, or gets glitchy WAY too often.

Well that would be the best solution.. Nothing beats running your own DNS however it is a bit of a PITA to maintain for home use.. as it complicates things..

I have far fewer problems with my own DNS than I do using other hosted DNS servers. In the past I've also setup some local domains, with local DynDNS support, so all of my machines would automagically get a registered host name in my DNS server. It's really pretty cool.

Darren Dirt · August 01, 2010, 11:26:42 AM

Quote from: Mr. Analog on May 29, 2010, 11:29:44 PM
Okay, I resolved it by using Google Public DNS

For Tonnica's sake (who is likely having this problem as well) here's a quick "how to"
http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using.html

Here's irony for ya:

I just REMOVED my Google DNS -- because since the IP change, I couldn't "find" the RW domain anymore.

Weird eh?

I guess Shaw's not as bad as I thought it was, when I made the switch I coulda sworn I noticed a speed increase, now not so sure...

also, this:

Quote from: Lazybones on May 30, 2010, 12:33:27 AM
I have tested google dns but went back to my local shaw dns because the latancy was horrid.

Tom · August 01, 2010, 05:16:55 PM

Quote from: Darren Dirt on August 01, 2010, 11:26:42 AM
Quote from: Mr. Analog on May 29, 2010, 11:29:44 PM
Okay, I resolved it by using Google Public DNS

For Tonnica's sake (who is likely having this problem as well) here's a quick "how to"
http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using.html

Here's irony for ya:

I just REMOVED my Google DNS -- because since the IP change, I couldn't "find" the RW domain anymore.

Weird eh?

I guess Shaw's not as bad as I thought it was, when I made the switch I coulda sworn I noticed a speed increase, now not so sure...

also, this:
Quote from: Lazybones on May 30, 2010, 12:33:27 AM
I have tested google dns but went back to my local shaw dns because the latancy was horrid.

Yeah, it seems google is cacheing for far too long. Shaw will cache for a few hours to a day. But shaw's DNS likes to get slow, or just be down fairly often.

I've pretty much switched to running my own DNS server.

Lazybones · August 01, 2010, 07:52:34 PM

If you don't like your ISPs DNS you can always run your own... I think it is better than using those 3rd party DNS providers like OpenDNS and Google since I find their latency so poor.

Tom · August 01, 2010, 08:07:11 PM

Quote from: Lazybones on August 01, 2010, 07:52:34 PM
If you don't like your ISPs DNS you can always run your own... I think it is better than using those 3rd party DNS providers like OpenDNS and Google since I find their latency so poor.

Oh, one other thing that tends to effect speeds, especially with google. I tried using the DNS server setup on my new dedicated server (its in michigan), and it turns out I got google servers with much higher latencies than if I used shaw's or my own. Some how they are doing geo localization by DNS server, rather than your own. I thought they only picked the server based on your own ip, seems they don't.