Can't access specific domain from Plusnet broadband – works on mobile data & VPN

[#1]

Hi, I’m experiencing an issue where I can’t access a specific site from my home Plusnet broadband:

URL: https://webmail.cardonaldparishchurch.org.uk

Symptoms:

• The site fails to load on all devices connected to my home Wi-Fi (laptop, phone, etc.)

• I get DNS errors or “server not found” messages

• However, it does load fine when:

  • Using mobile data

  • or connecting my laptop on a different network viz. church wireless

• nslookup times out when run through Plusnet, even when using Google or Cloudflare DNS

Steps I’ve already taken:

• Flushed DNS cache on PC

• Tried Google (8.8.8.8) and Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) DNS

• Rebooted the router

• Tried different browsers and devices

• Disabled antivirus/firewall

• Connected via ProtonVPN (didn’t help)

• Tried accessing on phone over Wi-Fi and mobile — works on mobile data only

This clearly seems like a DNS resolution or routing issue specific to Plusnet.

Can someone from the team please check:

• If this domain is being blocked or misrouted by Plusnet?

• If my current public IP is possibly blacklisted by the domain’s server?

I’d really appreciate help resolving this as the customer support agent asked me to take the community's help. 

They are NOT TRAINED to fix DNS issues!

Thanks!

[#2]

@cardonaldparish welcome to the forums

nslookup (I am using plusnet DNS)

nslookup webmail.cardonaldparishchurch.org.uk
Server:  UnKnown
Address:  192.168.0.1
Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    webmail.cardonaldparishchurch.org.uk
Address:  213.246.109.214

traceroute 

C:\>tracert webmail.cardonaldparishchurch.org.uk

Tracing route to webmail.cardonaldparishchurch.org.uk [213.246.109.214]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms  192.168.10.1
  2    10 ms     9 ms     7 ms  250.core.plus.net [195.166.130.250]
  3     9 ms     9 ms     8 ms  217.32.25.132
  4     9 ms     8 ms     9 ms  109.159.255.40
  5    10 ms     9 ms    10 ms  194.74.16.249
  6     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  7    10 ms    10 ms    11 ms  ae1-cr1.rdg.as29550.net [91.186.5.241]
  8    11 ms    10 ms    10 ms  ae0-cr0.rdg.as29550.net [91.186.5.246]
  9    11 ms    11 ms    11 ms  213-229-127-137.static.as29550.net [213.229.127.137]
 10    11 ms    11 ms    10 ms  rdg2-v411.namesco.net [195.7.224.250]
 11    10 ms    11 ms    11 ms  server1.websites4christians.com [213.246.109.214]

Trace complete.

I see the webmail login screen when I click on the supplied link

Have you enabled SafeGuard on your account?

Which Hub are you using

[#3]

No issue here using Plusnet default DNS servers.

Make a note of your public IP address & then power the router down for a couple of minutes. When it reboots, check the IP address has changed & try again.

[#4]

They have changed their address - Cardonald Parish Church | Glasgow, UK | Church of Scotland

No ".uk" on the end.

[#5]

@Townman  The url for the webmail ending org.uk in the opening post is correct, I can access it.

[#6]

Though I have not checked for the public IP address, we have tried rebooting the hub with a total shutdown for over 30 minutes. The primary issue is, none of the devices, when connected to the hub, are able to open that domain.

[#7]

The email server has a different domain from the main website. The website has recently been moved onto a new domain as we are unable to get in touch with the ones who made the old website.

[#8]

@cardonaldparish 

It is important to describe the issue correctly

Do you see the webmail login screen?

When I enter random username and password I see a message "Connection to IMAP server failed" in the bottom right corner of the screen

[#9]

Hi, appreciate your trying to help but I'm sorry, what details do you need?
I do not see anything but an error page.
That website doesn't resolve at all at our end when connected to the Plusnet hub. But if I use mobile data, it works fine.

[#10]

Be interesting to see the message nslookup gives

using the PC dns server

nslookup webmail.cardonaldparishchurch.org.uk

and forcing google dns

nslookup webmail.cardonaldparishchurch.org.uk 8.8.8.8

traceroute using the IP Address of the webmail site would prove there is a route via your router, and the router is?

tracert 213.246.109.214

[#11]

I have tried, with the help of ChatGPT, using 8.8.8.8 and it still doesn't resolve. Also tried using a VPN.

[#12]

Unless your router has a static IP Address, you may need to leave your router off overnight to refresh it.

So in a windows terminal enter this command

nslookup webmail.cardonaldparishchurch.org.uk 8.8.8.8

I see this result

C:\>nslookup webmail.cardonaldparishchurch.org.uk 8.8.8.8
Server:  dns.google
Address:  8.8.8.8

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    webmail.cardonaldparishchurch.org.uk
Address:  213.246.109.214

What do you see?

can you ping 213.246.109.214

C:\>ping 213.246.109.214

Pinging 213.246.109.214 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 213.246.109.214: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=52
Reply from 213.246.109.214: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=52
Reply from 213.246.109.214: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=52
Reply from 213.246.109.214: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=52

Ping statistics for 213.246.109.214:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 10ms, Maximum = 11ms, Average = 10ms

[#13]

---

@RealAleMadrid wrote:

@Townman  The url for the webmail ending org.uk in the opening post is correct, I can access it.

---

And TODAY so can I, but not yesterday!

This domain was updated on 10th April - it could take 48+ hours for the change to fully promulgate.

Are you using Plusnet safeguarding?

Are you on a static IP address.

Digging deeper into this domain's history it has had three changes this year...

February 1, 2025

February 23, 2025

April 10, 2025

[#14]

Hi @Townman 

No static IP and no safeguarding.

And I am not sure by what you mean 3 changes to the domain.

See, my biggest concern is - it works everywhere else except when connected to the home network.

[#15]

Reputedly the host's details have been changed three times this year ... someone has been fiddling!!  The most recent one was 10th April and appears to have taken a deal of time to reach Plusnet's DNS services.  I tried the link yesterday and it failed; today it works.

That suggests that Plusnet's DNS service updated over night (certainly after I tried).  Plusnet has two DNS services, given that you are not using safeguarding removes the possibility that you are on the other one.

Are you using a VPN?

What is the result of running this in a terminal window...

nslookup webmail.cardonaldparishchurch.org.uk 192.168.1.254

It should look like this...

Server:  UnKnown
Address:  192.168.1.254

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    webmail.cardonaldparishchurch.org.uk
Address:  213.246.109.214

If that fails and you are not using a VPN, then check the DNS settings for your device, again in a terminal window...

ipconfig /all

From amongst the output for all of the NICs, find the DNS reference - confirm that it has been set to the router's IP address...

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : home
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : *********
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.34(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 11 April 2025 10:43:29
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 13 April 2025 09:36:36
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Finally check the DNS addresses assigned in the router: 

Primary DNS: 212.159.13.49

Secondary DNS: 212.159.6.9

If yours do not match the above, then that is a matter to be investigated.  If they do match ... then we are probably looking at a browser cache issue.

EDIT: Given that this host has seen multiple changes this year... has something been done to fudge it's name resolution by the addition of a local routing entry in the HOSTS file?