Browsing errors?

Shorty · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 25 Location: KY

The last day or so I've had problems accessing some (but not all) websites on the first request, but the second request often goes through. (Firefox/ICS/Sierra AC595/Sprint) Also, my upload speeds have dropped; download seems near average.

Does this sound like a DNS problem, a Sprint network problem, or something else completely different???

Thanks for any ideas,

Shorty

J_Walker · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 117

I've been having the same issues. It's definitely DNS related. Some sites take 5 - 10 tries before it will resolve the domain. As far as i'm aware, Sprint intercepts and uses their own DNS, so it won't matter what DNS servers you use.

Other people have mentioned the same problem in a thread on DSLR.

nmfiredawg · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 02 May 2008 Posts: 22

yeah have had some of those same problems lately.

Jim_in_VA · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:43 am Post subject:

Verizon and Sprint are doing software upgrades. You could be experiencing the temporary hiccup while it is being implemented. Details: http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/voip/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208808214
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Wireless · EVDO Newbie Joined: 17 Jul 2008 Posts: 1

A "temporary hiccup"? Hell, my old dial-up ISP used to warn us of such upgrades, and they would take less than 6 hours. A few days in my mind warrants calling this a Myocardial Infarction! Perhaps there's a difference in scale involved here, but they could have warned us, no?

I'm having this problem as well. I first noticed it on the afternoon of July 15th. Since then it has varied in intensity from merely interfering occasionally with my browsing to completely blocking all websites that I attempt to visit. The evening of July 16th I could not access any website.

I've also noticed that sometimes instead of completely blocking a site, I will be able to load the text of pages on a particular site, but none of the images. This occurred most recently with the BBC news site this morning for about 15 minutes, and then suddenly it was fine again.

Well, I've had more than a year of good service from Sprint up to this point, but if this continues for much longer, I'll have "issues" to discuss with sprint's support staff. Perhaps I shouldn't have waited this long to call them anyway. I just kept thinking it was such an obvious problem that it had to be noticed and taken care of tout de suite.

AustinPSD · EVDO Newbie Joined: 29 Jul 2008 Posts: 5

Could it be that the DNS problems have returned to Sprint's network?

I've been an EVDO user (via the no-contract alternative service that uses Sprint as carrier) for roughly a month. For the most part, network performance has been excellent.

Since Saturday, 8/30 I've been experiencing random DNS problems, ranging from very, very slow name resolution to complete resolution failure.

I use a CDU-680/CTR-350 combination for network access, along with a high-gain omni, and consistently see signal strength in the -60db range, so I don't believe the OTA link is the problem.

Is there any way to see Sprint trouble-ticket or other maintenance notification to rule in/out this as a possibility?

AZDude · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:03 pm Post subject:

I hate to say it but, too am having the same issue. I use the 595U modem with ctr 350 router.

AustinPSD · EVDO Newbie Joined: 29 Jul 2008 Posts: 5

After investigating more deeply, I am relatively certain the root cause is failure of DNS on the Sprint network.

I configured both my CTR-350, my Mac PowerBooks, etc., to utilize OpenDNS, and the problem is eliminated.

I've repeated this experiment over the last several hours, alternating between the network-assigned Sprint servers and the OpenDNS servers, and find that the former fail >80% of the time, while OpenDNS succeeds >90% of the time, even for obscure resolution requests.

More time will tell, but it seems like OpenDNS might be the right approach.

Jayson · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:25 pm Post subject:

I have been getting similar results ...mostly during the day ....seems like sometimes it hangs and then gives an error that the webpage can not be found....sure hope this goes away soon ....just a bit aggrivating....also how do you change the settings to open dns ...is that through the router or through internet option settings.?

Michael · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:47 pm Post subject:

This article on EVDOinfo.com shows you how:

Change DNS to Speed up Your EVDO Card - Using OpenDNS
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Sally · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 111

In Denver area here... and my speeds have sucked the last 3 days or so.

But I just figured Sprint was punishing me for using too many gigs on my &%$#(*&@# unlimited plan. Smile

AustinPSD... how's that alternative working out for you? I may wind up there next. Smile

AustinPSD · EVDO Newbie Joined: 29 Jul 2008 Posts: 5

The alternative is working very well thus far, and appears to be truly unlimited. I deliberately pushed above what Sprint's cap is to test the waters, and find that I don't get hit with either extra charges, or punished vis a vis bandwidth throttling.

The OpenDNS fix has worked well also - I've had zero issues since making that change.

Peterfield · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 09 Mar 2008 Posts: 117