Why am I getting this BT screen on my browser? Is it legit?

hazel · 08-12-2019, 08:49 AM

Occasionally nowadays, I launch my browser and it stalls on DDG (my home page) and then produces this:

Code:

address:        62.6.38.125/index.html

SERVICE INFORMATION
 
You have been connected to this page due to one of the following reasons. You must now shut down your internet browser and internet applications before attempting to reconnect. This may clear the issue immediately, if not then please select the appropriate action from list below.
Your service provider is currently unable to accept your connection request, please wait and reattempt later or contact your service provider for more information.
Or
You have attempted to access an invalid Service Provider domain, check your user details.
Or
You are testing your connection using bt_test_user@startup_domain. Please proceed to next step as advised by your Service Provider
OrYou are testing your connection to your service provider using bt_test_user@domain. where "domain" is your Service Provider domain name. Please proceed to next step as advised by your Service Provider.
Or
The access circuit to your Service Provider is currently down. Your service should be resumed soon. Please try again later or contact your Service Provider 

Page maintained by BTWholesale

When I try using ping, there is no throughput. But then, after a few minutes, things are back to normal. I googled some of the text, but the only hits I got were from BT forums. BT is not my ISP, although they do supply my telephone service.

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?

cynwulf · 08-12-2019, 09:16 AM

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).

hazel · 08-12-2019, 09:18 AM

Thanks!

DavidMcCann · 08-12-2019, 10:44 AM

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.

hazel · 08-12-2019, 11:10 AM

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.

enorbet · 08-12-2019, 01:33 PM

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.

hazel · 08-13-2019, 08:06 AM

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

enorbet · 08-13-2019, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

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. 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.

Traceroute is your friend

and incidentally... wizard? isn't that for the sheeple that run Windows? (sorry...couldn't resist)

hazel · 08-13-2019, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enorbet

Traceroute is your friend

and incidentally... wizard? isn't that for the sheeple that run Windows? (sorry...couldn't resist)

Ha! Ha! My router has one and I'm pretty sure it runs Linux. Don't all routers?

So I should use traceroute on the dns address?

Also please read my post again; I've added some info.

hazel · 08-13-2019, 01:07 PM

OK, here's what it shows.

Code:

traceroute to 195.74.113.58 (195.74.113.58), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  . (192.168.2.1)  0.359 ms  0.443 ms  0.535 ms
 2  lns6.the.dsl.enta.net (78.33.253.141)  25.188 ms  27.032 ms  29.473 ms
 3  100.bundle-ether2.the.dsl.enta.net (78.33.252.129)  31.826 ms  33.702 ms  35.626 ms
 4  bundle-ether1.telehouse-east4.core.enta.net (188.39.127.244)  38.044 ms  39.364 ms  41.847 ms

Looks pretty direct to me: router, Entanet login server, another Entanet machine on the same network, then one more Entanet machine somewhere else (but apparently not on the same network as the dns server itself).

enorbet · 08-13-2019, 09:37 PM

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.

hazel · 08-14-2019, 04:50 AM

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
 1  . (192.168.2.1)  0.349 ms  0.412 ms  0.457 ms
 2  lns6.the.dsl.enta.net (78.33.253.141)  26.487 ms  27.834 ms  31.243 ms
 3  100.bundle-ether2.the.dsl.enta.net (78.33.252.129)  33.193 ms  34.074 ms  35.482 ms
 4  bundle-ether1.telehouse-east4.core.enta.net (188.39.127.244)  37.068 ms  38.999 ms  41.624 ms
 5  bundle-ether102.telehouse-north.core.enta.net (188.39.127.167)  43.033 ms  45.925 ms  46.841 ms
 6  72.14.221.186 (72.14.221.186)  47.783 ms  28.597 ms  28.524 ms
 7  108.170.246.161 (108.170.246.161)  29.866 ms  27.174 ms  28.531 ms
 8  108.170.232.103 (108.170.232.103)  28.989 ms 108.170.232.105 (108.170.232.105)  31.158 ms  33.112 ms
 9  lhr25s11-in-f14.1e100.net (216.58.210.46)  33.989 ms  36.692 ms  38.082 ms

Again we get to the "bundle" servers at 188.39.127. The first of these can connect directly to the dns servers (see my previous post). To get from Entanet to Google however takes 5 more hops. And I can't see either of the dns addresses this time around.

There's something here that I am not understanding.

enorbet · 08-14-2019, 10:22 PM

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?

hazel · 08-15-2019, 06:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enorbet

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?

It hasn't been down again since I started this thread. I'll certainly run a traceroute if it happens and report the result. Now please explain to me: why do the dns server addresses not appear in the route if they are being referenced?