Plusnet's server getting sluggish ?

[#1]

Over the last few days and especially the last 24 hours - I and a few others have noticed Plusnet's server getting rather sluggish and sometimes browser just reports network timeout - either here on community or Plusnet usergroups.
Meanwhile access to external sites is just fine
So can someone is Plusnet Towers in Sheffield give the servers a good kicking please.
Mal

[#2]

Well I down here in the South have had time out and funnies with a lot in the last week.
SWMBO uses the Weight Watcher site, - time outs
Google maps not displaying, but Mashups with google maps were
Several othe sites had time outs

[#3]

Thinjk this has been raised in the usergroup and siggestion was to add one of the OpenDNS IPs as a secondary and to explicitly put the DNS IPs into the router config and TCP/IP settings.
I apologise sincerely if I'm speaking out of turn but I get the feeling that this problem is way down on their list of priorities and is caused by overworked DNS boxes (it seems to present itself at peak time)  so wont be looked at anytime soon.
The trouble with OpenDNS is if it routes the request to a US DNS node it will block you from things such as iPlayer.
The OpenDNS site is http://www.opendns.com

[#4]

Quote from: techguy

The trouble with OpenDNS is if it routes the request to a US DNS node it will block you from things such as iPlayer.

Well you learn something new everyday.  I thought things like iPlayer checked your location using your IP address and the ISP it was assigned to in the RIPE database, not where you did your DNS lookups.

[#5]

Correction, this is what I believe to be happening as I tried using OpenDNS as my primary and secondary DNS for a while and kept getting told that the content could not be served to me due to the fact I was outside the UK!

I recently found this nugget of info which makes me think that what I suspected may indeed be true.
http://support.bbc.co.uk/support/peering/

If a lookup is performed on one of the servers stateside then the prefixes prosented to for example the Equinix Ashburn Virginia facility differ to what is presented to linx and so if this IP is returned then the user will be blocked.

I'd really like PN to look into the DNS issues and maybe upgrade the hosts that support it  as the symptoms seem to indicate that the servers are strained at times.
So if any of the comms team or network ops bods are reading this, please take a look.
I like to leave the DNS IP's dynamically assigned so that if there is some emergency maintainence the router will re-acquire them automatically

[#6]

Quote

I'd really like PN to look into the DNS issues and maybe upgrade the hosts that support it  as the symptoms seem to indicate that the servers are strained at times.

It has been raised internally but we can't find any obvious issues, the graphs look normal with no excess load and monitoring isn't showing anything on there. We'll keep digging and see if anything appears.

[#7]

Cheers Chris
I come across the sorts of problems with no obvious cause every so often so I do appreciate how hard it can be.
OpenDNS is fine apart from the issue that I mentioned above but their support is dire (tried to get into a section of their site about using it with a mobile and it got stuck in a redirect loop in both FF and IE, mailed them and told them in detail what I'd tried to do to sort the problem and all I got was a stock reponse referring me to the very part of the site I was having trouble with!) so quite frankly I'd rather use PN's cache than some that do it for a hobby.
If I can help with any data from the client side, let me know what you need and I'll happily dig it out.

[#8]

I've just been told there was some auth DNS query spiking from the 30th until this morning. It's settled down now and is being monitored by our networks team, so it could be related.
*update*
Just had a message from one of the networks guys looking into this, there was a rogue bind process running on the servers. It didn't show any errors during testing but he's killed it now anyway.

[#9]

*techguy ponders whether he is psychic regarding server problems. 
Glad to hear that its been found

Thanks for keeping on this Chris, much appreciated

Now I better get back to work

[#10]

Thanks Chris,