[eljay]

Last night, I fired up my PC at home only to find that I had no access to many websites and that other sites (DHC included) were very slow to respond.

I did what limited searching I could and came across this information:

The problems at SORBS — short for the Spam and Open Relay Blocking System — began on Wednesday and continued into much of Thursday, said Michelle Sullivan, who founded the real-time blacklisting service in 2002 and sold it to GFI Software last year. As a result, messages sent from a huge number of legitimate mail servers were labeled as junkmail and returned to sender.

Although it appears to deal only with e-mail, can anyone confirm whether this might also be the source of other IP blocking? Has anyone else had a similar experience recently?

(My ISP is Primus.ca.)

 

[hugh]

All I can say is that my Primus connection works fine so if its something to do with SORBS, its surprising that some Primus IPs aren't working and others are.

Have you contacted Primus? Sounds like a DNS problem. Have you tried switching your DNS server on your router?

 

[eljay]

Have you contacted Primus? Sounds like a DNS problem. Have you tried switching your DNS server on your router?

I haven't contacted Primus yet. I wasn't sure what to do about it last night - I spent what time I had just trying to find some information that might explain what was happening. I'm hoping to sort it out this weekend.

Could you please explain - or provide a link to information on - how I would go about switching DNS server on my router and what I would switch it to?

Thanks!

-- Edit --
I did a bit of Googling and found out how to change the DNS information, but the other part of my question remains: What am I supposed to change it to?

 

[hugh]

I use Google's DNS servers because they don't do redirects like Rogers and Primus.

Look for Primary and Secondary DNS server in your Router Setup.

In my router setup

Primary DNS Server: 8.8.8.8
Secondary DNS Server: 8.8.8.4

You can also use OpenDNS which I have used in the past. See Google Launches Public DNS thread

 

[eljay]

Thanks very much, hugh. I'll give it a try this weekend.

 

[eljay]

Well, I came home, fired up the PC...and everything's back to normal, like nothing ever went wrong. Go figure.

I'll keep the switch to Google DNS on tap for another time...should there be "another time". (I hope not!)

 

[BGY11]

I would make the change anyways - Google/OpenDNS' servers tend to be noticeably faster than an ISP's server.

 

[eljay]

Hmmm...yeah, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try it. Maybe it'll be this weekend after all...

 

[hugh]

I am with Primus and I found both OpenDNS and Google to be superior so I think it might be worthwhile for you.

 

[99semaj]

+1 on the OpenDNS servers. I wouldn't trust Rogers or Bell.