DNS problems on TalkTalk

Has anyone else had problems with TalkTalk's DNS servers returning an IP address for domains they don't know anything about? This is screwing up my VPN access to my work network as it stops my DNS client retrying the request to the DNS server registered on my VPN connection. The address returned (82.101.8.46) then resolves to a dumb TalkTalk branded HTML page telling me the name I requested doesn't exist.

Verisign got in big trouble with ICANN when they did this, so how come TalkTalk think it is ok! Or do they just know very little about how the Internet actually works.

I have sent them email requesting they change the behaviour (I'm not paying premium rate call charges for something like this) or tell me how to work around it. I'll give them the 5 days to reply then it will be email straight to Charles Dunstone.

Does anyone know a workaround to this - all my companies support can suggest is hardcoding addresses in my lmhosts file?

This turns out to be worse than I thought. I just tried connecting to a machine on my work network, and not only did TalkTalk's DNS server direct me to one of their pages, this page then auto-redirected me to a sponsored link. I was trying to browse to mach1.datcon.co.uk (one of my test machines) and it auto-redirected me to date.co.uk, an on-line dating service.

So not only have they screwed up my VPN connectivity, they are charging sponsors for very poorly directed referals!

Am having teh same problem. Have been with Talk Talk since last August. This started happening early December and I have 2 other collegues who are having the same problem with DNS using talktalk broadband.

It simply seems to ignore the DNS server at the end of the VPN tunnel so I have to add entries to the local hosts file. Pretty bad when most of the servers are allcoated IP addresses via DHCP!

I have a suspicion that something has altered on my machine since I have tried several "virgin" machines with this type of connection through TalkTalk and for a few seconds in each case, a PING will work, then it gets the same redirect response as if a reg entry has changed or something has altered in the bowels of the TCP stack.

I would welcome any clues. Am currently looking through a regmon and filemon output from a virgin machine to see if I can see anything untoward at the time the tunnel is established or the PING is initiated. Nothing so far.

I found a reasonably painless workaround. Reconfigure your system or router not to use TalkTalk's DNS servers. I'm currently connecting to the London OpenNIC server as primary (192.164.6.112) and one of BT's as secondary (194.74.65.68) and my VPN works flawlessly.

No reply from TalkTalk to my email complaint, so I'll be emailing Charles Dunstone in a couple of days to point out what dickheads his technical people are.

In the end, it will probably take more than a few complaints to make them change this. When Verisign tried it in 2003 there were a huge number of complaints before they removed the wildcards from their servers.

If you do find TalkTalk redirects you to some unrelated site, then you should email the owners of that site telling them how annoyed you are - if they get enough of these compared to the number of clicks TalkTalk bills them for then they may start asking for refunds or to be removed from TalkTalk's sponsor list.

I forgot to add, you may need to flush the DNS cache on your machine - ipconfig /flushdns if you're running Windows.

I forgot to add, you may need to flush the DNS cache on your machine - ipconfig /flushdns if you're running Windows.

Originally Posted by scud8

Sounds familiar somehow.......Ah, I know, George Formby and 'when I'm cleaning windows' !......All those years ago too.....

Many thanks for the advice. - changed the primary and secondary DNS on my router and tried this on my home PC and my VPN tunnel now works! - the bad news is that from my work's laptop which is configured in the same way still has the problem. Both are connecting to same wireless router. I will keep trying - have cleared the DNS cache and checked it - all clear (except for the odd DC access which it obviously can't connect to). Back to fiddling with regmon, filemon, nslookup and of course the hosts file until I can find out why.

Just had the exactly the same issues with my VPN, reassigned the DNS and hey presto, sorted. I used the PIPEX ones, 212.103.224.51 and 212.103.224.52. Good man!

I finally found the full solution to this problem. There are some registry edits you can make to the TCP/IP stack that will put the VPN (and dial-up connections) first in the queue for DNS lookups. See the following MS knowledgebase article for details.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311218/en-us

Hi I have stupidly signed up to and am connected to TT. Howvever, before i signed up i asked them if they supported vpn, something they clearly don't. After spending 3 hours setting up my model which they claim they don't supprt even though it is TT branded i can now connect. The main problems are though as soon as i activate my Netgear VPN client i can not browse the internet. Also even though i can connect to my server using the DNS addresses suggested in this e-mail i still can not cponnect properly and i just keep on getting asked for my username and password (which i keep on entering). Does anyone know a way round this please?

HI Mesh,

VPN can be used on a Talktalk connection, ive spoken to customers previously in my role that have been using it with no problems. If you are connecting to a VPN then you will not be using the TT internet to view webpages but will be using the networks internet connection that you are connecting too. IF your VPN network is attempting to authenticate and then failing it is more likely to e a setup problem from the EU's side.

If that is true how come i can use my old BT Voyager modem on TT and connect as usual? How do i set up my TT modem to work like my old reliable BT one?
I only boght the TT modem because the TT people told me they would refuse support on the old modem. Ironically even though i now have TT wireless modem you muppets on the supprt phone number included with the modem claim that they don't support this modem.

If that is true how come i can use my old BT Voyager modem on TT and connect as usual? How do i set up my TT modem to work like my old reliable BT one?
I only boght the TT modem because the TT people told me they would refuse support on the old modem. Ironically even though i now have TT wireless modem you muppets on the supprt phone number included with the modem claim that they don't support this modem.

Originally Posted by Mesh

Hi Mesh,

I know its not officially supported by the talktalk tech team. When talktalk set up this deal with Phillips to sell there routers, the idea was that phillips was to provide support for them and talktalk would sell them... all good in principal until phillips turn around and say one day "were no longer going to carry on the support we promised you". Its somthing that is being worked on at the moment, talktalk now have a third line support "Geek Squad" that is under trial at the moment. Take a look at www.geeksquad.com they will basiclly support things like third party routers, virus problems, spyware problems, software installations and anything else that is currently no covered under the scope of the talktalk 1st or 2nd line support.

There is also training i believe next week for the second line inbound team to be trained up on the phillips router in order to provide support on this(although they will already do there best to get you up and running with it).

And yup, setup or troubleshooting VPN Issues is somthing that us not under the remit of the current support scope but should be under the new "Geek Squad" team

many thanks for the info guys, this has fixed my work vpn probs !!!!!

MOST Appreciated.

Had same problem where talktalk kept dropping connection so had to reset router.

after trying every setting under the sun and every dns ip i could find it turns out it was because they were sending me max bandwidth which decreased the line quality. I asked them to cap my line to 2Meg and so far so good

fingers and toes crossed

ta
toe

Thanks all,

I too had a similar problem, only mine with with my lotus notes replicating, it was all working fine for 2 months, and then stopped working. I changed the DNS servers, flushed the DNS and hey presto, it is working again.

I think it is high time I pay up for an ISP that knows what Service Provision is about. As an ex-employee, I am very disappointed with the way CPW are handling TalkTalk.

I feel for my colleagues that are really trying hard under tough circumstances.

As far as im aware there have not been any DNS issues with talktalk for a long time now.

I hope that all that are having this problem with certain site access take the advice to change their DNS settings to something already mentioned on this thread. that fixed it for me and I've been at this for a few days now. why the TT modems work is probably down to having DNS settings that are auto updated. my Draytek Vigor now works with decent (not TT) DNS servers. my experience of DNS though would suggest that they should go somewhere else to resolve unless TT have theirs tied down somehow.
Good luck all.

I had similar problems with my VPN access.
I could connect to my VPN Server & access company files but Outlook refused to work.
As suggested by the other posts, I tried changing my router DNS proxy server settings use other IP's. This worked.
Also tried the regedit fix to re-order TCP/IP stack. This also worked.
But found some issues with them both.
The router DNS server Ip address change seemed to slow down access, have now set this to automatic only.
The TCP/Ip stack got reordered back by a TalkTalk utility to speed up access.
So now using another option which my Work IT man suggested, it seems a lot easier & simpler.
You edit windows hosts file using notepad, the file named "hosts" without any file extension, typically found at:
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\hosts
(location may differ if not using XP).
The existing last entry in this file is usually:
127.0.0.1 localhost
Add another line below with IP address of your works Exchange Server, then name of your of the Exchange server.
Example:
10.3.50.10 ExchServer005
Save it.
Windows searches this file for DNS mapping before going off to another server to look for the answer. It seems a lot simplier to me.
Any comments on this one.

I had talktalk broadband up until today with a wireless connection, no matter what I tried I could not VPN to the office to work from home. If I used a wired modem then it worked fine. I am now with a new ISP and VPN works perfectly using the router I had before. So talktalk are basically not allowing VPN through the router. If anyone is thinking of moving to talktalk DON'T they are the worse company for their customer service and broadband service is just a joke.

I had talktalk broadband up until today with a wireless connection, no matter what I tried I could not VPN to the office to work from home. If I used a wired modem then it worked fine. I am now with a new ISP and VPN works perfectly using the router I had before. So talktalk are basically not allowing VPN through the router. If anyone is thinking of moving to talktalk DON'T they are the worse company for their customer service and broadband service is just a joke.

Originally Posted by Guest

Hi,

TalkTalk do not restrict VPN usage and it is allowed, however technical issues with it are not supported by the contact centres. The usual reasons for this not working correctly when using a talktalk connection are either :

1. MTU/RWIN setting requires changing as the packets are to large to send
2. DNS server issue which can be resolved by using a different DNS server to the standard talktalk supplied ones. Agreed this is not the ideal solution but it is the easiest and quickest method.

Just had the exactly the same issues with my VPN, reassigned the DNS and hey presto, sorted. I used the PIPEX ones, 212.103.224.51 and 212.103.224.52. Good man!

Originally Posted by rjwojcik

My frustration with TalkTalk reached fever pitch yesterday having spoken to countlessTalk Talk BroadBand support automata in goodness knows what country...the repeated "yes i can help you with that m'am" when they obviously didn't know what I was going on about drove me insane.

Having spent an hour+ trying to get an answer I finally got diverted to Geek Squad ('we don't do VPN'), then was advised that if I called back today they would 'send someone out'.

Thank you to all those on here who made the suggestions re DNS. I haven't got a clue what any of this stuff means but I managed to fumble my way through and have successfully managed to work the VPN and can now access company e-mail and systems (the Pipex ones did the trick).

I haven't got anything helpful to add here, but just wanted to let you know that this does work.

Thought it worthwhile passing on this info to TalkTalk too (i'm trying to keep the faith!) but guess what? They couldn't really give a toss.

Hi,

I'm having problems with my VPN link it was working fine, last week my broadband started dropping and running slow so TT made some changes to the router settings. Now the broadband is fine but I can't use the VPN to access my work computer. From the posts it sounds like this is a problem that can be resolved.

I can use a computer but don't really understand all the tecky stuff, so could someone explain in english how I could resolve this problem. I use Cisco VPN.

Thanks in advance for any help

Haydn

So now using another option which my Work IT man suggested, it seems a lot easier & simpler.
You edit windows hosts file using notepad, the file named "hosts" without any file extension, typically found at:
CWINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\hosts
(location may differ if not using XP).
The existing last entry in this file is usually:
127.0.0.1 localhost
Add another line below with IP address of your works Exchange Server, then name of your of the Exchange server.
Example:
10.3.50.10 ExchServer005
Save it.
Windows searches this file for DNS mapping before going off to another server to look for the answer. It seems a lot simplier to me.
Any comments on this one.

Originally Posted by protoping

This is not really DNS at all. It is Static Name Lookup!

i am having problems with my xbox i have the ip address but then it goes on to the dns setting and it failsanyone have any idea what i am doing worng

Hi,

TalkTalk do not restrict VPN usage and it is allowed, however technical issues with it are not supported by the contact centres. The usual reasons for this not working correctly when using a talktalk connection are either :

1. MTU/RWIN setting requires changing as the packets are to large to send
2. DNS server issue which can be resolved by using a different DNS server to the standard talktalk supplied ones. Agreed this is not the ideal solution but it is the easiest and quickest method.

Originally Posted by TalkTalkBoy

Too many restrictions in place make your service unusable, only when you have to configure and mess about with settings/routers/operating systems (which shouldnt be needed as other isp work) does it start to work intermittently.

Ive just pulled out after waiting 6 weeks for broadband, basically not honouring your part of the contract with conflicting 14 days to change your mind statements just made me see how bad TT was. Even wireless conecting to a neighbour on TT shows how poor the web is delivered. i guess anything that has AOL involved is worth steering clear. GL

The last post was in 2009 it is now 2012 and nothing has changed, DNS still failing and Talk Talk are just the same ( all talk and no action) !!!
Don't sign up if your thinking of joining Talk Talk broadband !!
I can send pictures quicker by 1st class post! than the time it takes to get a website!

Hi All,

If any customers are experiencing issues wiht TT DNS please test using either Open DNS or Google DNS. Once tested pelase report findings via either the TalkTalk Members Forum or by Tweeting us @TalkTalkCare.

Regards

Mark
TalkTalk Online Community Department

Before changing your DNS settings to Google or OpenDNS because of some unreliable servers. I think you should check the usefulness, there are a few tools to test DNS servers, such as Googles namebench and GRC namespeed benchmark.

My dns can do problam from four days