Why am I getting this BT screen on my browser? Is it legit?
Occasionally nowadays, I launch my browser and it stalls on DDG (my home page) and then produces this:
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address: 62.6.38.125/index.html When it first happened a couple of days ago, I assumed it was connected to the big grid outage that we had in the UK. But it happened again today. Should I be worried? |
It's legitimate. BT are not your ISP, but BT Wholesale provide the infrastructure. If it keeps occurring you'll have to refer it to your ISP (who will in turn refer it onto any 3rd parties they deal with - including BT Wholesale / Openreach if required).
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Thanks!
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I've had that happen once. The reason is most likely to be "The access circuit to your Service Provider is currently down" — in other words, your ASDL connection to the telephone exchange is fine, but they've lost the connection to the ISP's sever.
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That's what I guessed it was. Previously when I lost internet, it was always a problem on the local lines.
I sent an email to the Entanet techs just in case. If there really is a problem with their server, they ought to know about it. But it could very well be a lingering effect of the recent power outage. |
Hi hazel
It may be also exacerbated by using the (commonly default) ISP's DNS. It is probably worth a try to change your DNS to something like OpenDNS. There are other services like this but OpenDNS is a decent choice, and in some cases will improve connectivity by making fewer hops than your ISP may provide. It may also help with your current connection being handed off as it is. If you access through a a dsl modem/router combination it would need to be changed there. You probably already know this but just in case, you can enter your router's addy with your browser since most routers will have a control app at that address where you can customize various elements of how your router functions. If the modem/router was provided by your service provider, it will only allow changes not disallowed by your service agreement but I have never seen one that won't allow DNS changes. |
The computer gets dns from the adsl router, and the router uses 2 dns servers, clearly from the same supplier: 195.74.113.58 and 195.74.113.62. I can't remember any more where they came from. I suppose I must have entered them during setup. The router is mine. I bought it at Maplin's (what a useful shop that was!) because Entanet provide only a "bare wires" service. But I don't particularly want to run the setup wizard again in case I spoil my connection; why tamper with something that works?
I don't think they belong to Entanet though, because the ip addresses aren't anything like the Entanet connection address. Wrong! They do belong to Entanet. See https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/en...-settings.html |
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So I should use traceroute on the dns address? Also please read my post again; I've added some info. |
OK, here's what it shows.
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traceroute to 195.74.113.58 (195.74.113.58), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets |
Hello again hazel,
You mentioned you had used ping but not what address you pinged. The idea of traceroute (which is just sort of progressive pinging. If you enter each new addy you can determine where it stops returning, but of course traceroute has the advantage of progressing down the line and identifying the addy of each node but once identified you could choose to just ping those. Whichever method you use you should be able to determine what address is the obstacle that stops full connectivity. If that addy is the host of your DNS, which is somewhat common, changing what service translates say "enta.net" into "188.39.127.244" may possibly sidestep that bottleneck if it is overwhelmed or just slow. Many ISPs gain income by supporting some web addresses which they will prefer as part of their DNS service which is why they often involve more hops, benefiting them instead of you. DNS may not be the issuein rejected connection, but it sometimes is and is worth sussing out but of course you will only gain the most directly useful results if this is done while service is down. Aside from that one can quickly switch DNS service and compare ping times or number of hops as well as total ping times to see if there are other benefits of the many free DNS servers. I suggest also using traceroute on a more distant addy to see where the DNS is. Here in the US it is legal and common to ping well known addresses like google.com or yahoo.com. I'm sure you have something like that which will involve 20 or more hops so you can see how many hops to your DNS for a pass-thru. |
Wow! That's a lot to take in at one go. My use of ping is a simple yes/no. I ping 8.8.8.8, which is a Google dns server, to see if I have an Internet connection at all.
So let me see if I understand you. Are you saying I should write down these ip addresses somewhere and then ping the login server or the dns server when I have trouble, to see where the blockage is? Actually I think that BT message makes it clear that it was the login server I couldn't reach. I don't think dns comes into it at that stage. Here's what I get for google.com: Code:
traceroute to google.com (216.58.210.46), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets There's something here that I am not understanding. |
Sorry, hazel. I think I'm trying to cover too much in a small post going step-by-step and with options... my bad. I'm simply putting myself in your shoes and I'd want to know if the rejection was due to a DNS failure since it is common to make the first hop to our ISPs, but things can get hinky after that.... just process of elimination. Apparenntly I eliminated some of my own sense along with it ;)
Specific to your last post it seems you can reach google so that was done while your connection was "up" I assume. What happens when you traceroute google when your connection is down? Aren't intermittent problems the absolute worst? |
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