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DNS lookup slow and "no internet connection"

Finston Pickle

Fri Jul 21, 2017 8:00:17 am

My latest Zorin 12 Ultimate problems:

I seem to be having a lot of trouble with DNS probing - whatever that is.

Also “There is no internet connection” is being reported from my various browsers when “Networks” clearly shows that my home WiFi network is operational.

No other home devices i-pad, internet TV etc. are having problems with my BT Home Hub 5 router.


Is there anything that I can do to make things as good as they are on my Zorin 9 laptop, which never shows these issues and is much faster to obtain items in my browsers?

Swarfendor437

Sat Jul 22, 2017 12:07:20 am

Hi see the last post on this thread:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/777935/ ... o-internet

Finston Pickle

Sat Jul 22, 2017 6:03:08 pm

The original post suggests:

Add these two lines to /etc/resolv.conf:

nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4

Of course /etc/resolvconf does not allow me to paste anything into the folder and is probably the wrong place anyway.

/etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d has two parts: base (empty) and head 151 bytes and does not allow manual updating, as it is automatically overwritten seemingly.

Clear as mud so far, I'm afraid

Swarfendor437

Sat Jul 22, 2017 7:07:31 pm

Have you tried removing the wireless connection and starting over?

Finston Pickle

Sun Jul 23, 2017 7:33:40 am

Yes, I tried removing the wireless connection and starting over initially. It did not seem to make much difference.

At the time Settings > network was showing no connection (no blue) - so I renewed the connection.

Nowadays, the connection is shown Blue at all times - some improvement due to updates, I had thought.

In spite of that (blue showing all the time) the Zorin 12 Ultimate browsing performance on my Krato is lacklustre - not a patch on my Zorin 9 machine.


Looking online, it does seem to be a Ubuntu16.04 issue - and I have not found a trustworthy and clear solution to follow.

I think that one has to edit /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/head by command line editing - I wish I knew how.

Linx

Sun Jul 23, 2017 11:29:04 am

We could use some information to help us know what to start troubleshooting, try running the following.

Code:
ip addr | grep -v inet6
ip link
ip route
cat /etc/resolv.conf
ping -c 4 $( ip route | grep default | awk '{print $3}' )
ping -c4 google.com


This should give something kinda like the following.
Code:
user@hostname:~$ ip addr | grep -v inet6
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp4s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 10:bf:48:17:56:e0 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.1.192/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic enp4s0
       valid_lft 58669sec preferred_lft 58669sec
       valid_lft 348496sec preferred_lft 18168sec
       valid_lft 348496sec preferred_lft 89296sec
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: wlp2s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:ed:b9:6a:a1:d8 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
4: virbr0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.122.1/24 brd 192.168.122.255 scope global virbr0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
5: virbr0-nic: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 52:54:00:57:f2:80 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
user@hostname:~$ ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp4s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 10:bf:48:17:56:e0 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlp2s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 08:ed:b9:6a:a1:d8 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
4: virbr0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
5: virbr0-nic: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 52:54:00:57:f2:80 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
user@hostname:~$ ip route
default via 192.168.1.1 dev enp4s0  proto static  metric 100
169.254.0.0/16 dev enp4s0  scope link  metric 1000
192.168.1.0/24 dev enp4s0  proto kernel  scope link  src 192.168.1.192  metric 100
192.168.122.0/24 dev virbr0  proto kernel  scope link  src 192.168.122.1 linkdown
user@hostname:~$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
# Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by resolvconf(8)
#     DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
nameserver 127.0.1.1
user@hostname:~$ ping -c 4 $( ip route | grep default | awk '{print $3}' )
PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.643 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.419 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.459 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.457 ms

--- 192.168.1.1 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 2998ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.419/0.494/0.643/0.090 ms
user@hostname:~$ ping -c4 google.com
PING google.com (172.217.4.238) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from ord30s31-in-f238.1e100.net (172.217.4.238): icmp_seq=1 ttl=54 time=19.2 ms
64 bytes from ord30s31-in-f238.1e100.net (172.217.4.238): icmp_seq=2 ttl=54 time=19.6 ms
64 bytes from ord30s31-in-f238.1e100.net (172.217.4.238): icmp_seq=3 ttl=54 time=19.4 ms
64 bytes from ord30s31-in-f238.1e100.net (172.217.4.238): icmp_seq=4 ttl=54 time=17.5 ms

--- google.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3005ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 17.534/18.972/19.615/0.858 ms
user@hostname:~$



Something else that may be useful is grabbing output of the following command.
Code:
mtr -4 -i1 -tbe google.com


You will need to wait a minute or so after starting it and then grab the output.

Code:
                                             My traceroute  [v0.86]
hostname (0.0.0.0)                                                                          Sun Jul 23 06:39:33 2017
Keys:  Help   Display mode   Restart statistics   Order of fields   quit
                                                                        Packets               Pings
Host                                                                 Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
1. WRT1900ACS (192.168.1.1)                                           0.0%    67    0.5   0.5   0.4   0.6   0.0
2. 10.145.39.1                                                        0.0%    67    8.2  11.0   6.5  18.3   1.7
3. 172.30.6.25                                                        0.0%    66   11.5  12.2   7.3  16.4   1.7
4. 68-66-72-101.client.mchsi.com (68.66.72.101)                       0.0%    66   19.7  18.8  13.7  23.4   1.4
5. 68-66-72-41.client.mchsi.com (68.66.72.41)                         0.0%    66   14.2  18.6  13.7  23.7   1.6
6. 68-66-73-122.client.mchsi.com (68.66.73.122)                       0.0%    66   17.7  18.8  13.9  32.3   2.1
7. 72.14.215.212                                                      0.0%    66   16.4  19.6  14.7  40.4   3.4
8. ???
9. 216.239.42.107                                                     0.0%    66   13.6  18.7  13.6  30.8   2.1
10. ord30s25-in-f206.1e100.net (216.58.192.206)                        0.0%    66   16.7  18.6  13.0  24.3   1.6

Finston Pickle

Mon Jul 24, 2017 5:49:11 pm

Thanks, Links.

Having had the issues that I have had with Zorin 12 Ultimate, I don't want to **** anything up. Been there done that.

I have no idea how you "grab" the output from command line commands, I'm afraid, either.

So, thanks for the suggestions - perhaps some other brave soul with slow look up etc. (there seem to be plenty using Ubuntu 16.04 having this problem, so there must be more amongst the Zorin 12 community) will give it a try.

In the meantime I will wait for a generic solution to emerge - or perhaps an OS update sometime - it is only an annoyance, the browsers get there in the end and sometimes even work reasonably well.

Swarfendor437

Mon Jul 24, 2017 6:30:15 pm

Finston Pickle

Tue Jul 25, 2017 12:31:55 pm

Thanks for the tip, Swarf.

I had seen this one before and found it a bit deep - do I use BIND, I wonder?

I will give flush a try if others find it useful first - V.cautious - if it ain't bust don't fix it!

Finston Pickle

Fri Aug 11, 2017 7:46:52 am

I've always had good service from ID net DNS servers, which was a business service and worked particularly well at night:

Primary DNS: 212.69.36.3
Secondary DNS: 212.69.36.2
Tertiary DNS: 212.69.40.2

I am currently using BT DNS servers which seem fast in online comparisons, but which are giving me a slow service - particularly at night. Of course this slow performance could be a Ubuntu 16.04 issue - there are lots of posts about this online.
Can I use just anyone's DNS servers, like ID net, or do they have to be “public” DNS servers?

If I can use ID net servers, how do I enter them in my Zorin 12 Ultimate laptop's Ipv4 settings?

Is it in the “server” box under DNS - do I just click + to add secondary/tertiary - do I need to deselect Auto or does this happen anyway?

Swarfendor437

Fri Aug 11, 2017 6:06:33 pm

Because I am using Wired at present I don't know if the option for 'Automatic [DHCP - address only]' is still available in respect of Wireless. In earlier versions of Zorin you had to select this then in the Server setttings:

208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220 - to separate Primary from Secondary. From the screenshot I guess you just add additional servers? The example given is from OpenDNS which offers a free and a more feature-filled paid for plan.

Wired_006.jpg

Finston Pickle

Fri Aug 25, 2017 6:12:02 pm

Belated thanks for the update, Swarf, Thanks.

Tonight things became so bad with the BT DNS servers that I tried what I was thinking about:

I've always had good service from ID net DNS servers, which was a business service and worked particularly well at night:

Primary DNS: 212.69.36.3
Secondary DNS: 212.69.36.2
Tertiary DNS: 212.69.40.2

So - I tried it.

Result - far faster look up - pretty well as good as my Zorin 9 laptop - well satisfied.

Just one nagging doubt - will ID net mind? Or is it like e-mail pop servers where you can use any one you choose?

Swarfendor437

Sat Aug 26, 2017 9:20:16 am

Normally I would have thought you may need permission in much the same way as Opera DNS. That said I am not qualified to comment on ID Net as only know of it through your posts.

Finston Pickle

Sun Aug 27, 2017 12:29:19 pm

Although the actual DNS lookup is quicker with ID net.net, I am still getting various browsing errors, which I have listed below:


Loading... waiting for zoringroup.com

This site can’t be reached
www.itzgeek.com’s server could not be found.
DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN (then it opened!)

uBlock Origin has prevented the following page from loading:http://www.tradeadexchange.com/a/display.php?r=310486 Because of the following filter ||tradeadexchange.com^ (popped up on a zorin thread I was looking at)


This site can’t be reached
www.astrakforums.co.uk’s server  could not be found.
DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

Resolving host...
There is no Internet connection
Try:
Checking the network cables, modem and router
Reconnecting to Wi-Fi
DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NO_INTERNET


Perhaps I will try openDNS, like Swarf and see if it is any better

Finston Pickle

Tue Aug 29, 2017 5:56:03 pm

Having taken advice from Ubuntu forums addressing this DNS issue and Ubuntu 16.04, I am now trying Google DNS:

8.8.8.8
and
8.8.4.4

So far, so good - no problems DNS probing etc. - so far - in fact very good performance!

I will keep Open DNS in reserve.

Swarfendor437

Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:35:01 pm

Can this thread be marked as either SOLVED or RESOLVED? ;) :D

Finston Pickle

Thu Aug 31, 2017 6:45:38 pm

Things improved when I started using Google DNS:

8.8.8.8
and
8.8.4.4

I will keep Swarf's Open DNS in reserve.


Update 31-8-17: Still periodically bad - never had a problem with Zorin 9 - What did they change?

Finston Pickle

Fri Sep 01, 2017 10:54:12 am

It now seems as though part of my problem is that I did not recognise that my WiFi had dropped out.

When I looked at Settings>Network, I could see "WiFi connected" and a blue ON bar and I thought things were OK - you would wouldn't you.

I now realise that I should have seen a v small black tick next to my router (it was often, probably always missing).

So the issue is - Why does my WiFi keep dropping out and what can I do about it? The Router is only 18 months old and works just fine with every other device in the house and I have cleared the router cache by powering off then on.

Swarfendor437

Sat Sep 02, 2017 8:54:49 am

Where in your dwelling is the router in relation to where your computer is?

Finston Pickle

Sun Sep 03, 2017 4:18:15 pm

My BT home hub 5 router is about 15 ft across the lounge.

Fortunately, I think that thing are looking up - Great!

What I have found is that my laptop seems to get confused between my actual router and the "FON" setting available to any BT customer in the area (A bit galling this feature to say the least - you can't opt out).

What I did was to log on to the "FON" element of the router, which then gave me the option to "forget all the settings for this router - or some such). Then I logged on to my router repeatedly until I got th little tick next to the router. From then on it seems to have reopened from lid closed, each time, with the tick.

Combining this with geeting rid of Slimjet - separate posting - and using Firefox and Opera and the laptop is finally flying.

I will close this posting after a few days successful running.

Finston Pickle

Mon Dec 11, 2017 8:19:25 am

After Firefox slowing after he latest Zorin 12 update, I again modified my DNS preferences.

1. I reverted to the three IDnet DNS servers, which I have always found fast and reliable - especially at night, as it is a business service (less business traffic. I guess).

2. I finally took the advice, that I found online, to switch off IPv6 for the time being.

Result: Fast lookups, even with all the addons that I am running and excellent speed even with mutiple (say 10 -15) tabs open.

Finston Pickle

Fri Jan 12, 2018 8:58:41 am

An article in Computer active took my fancy - how to use the world's most secure DNS server - http://www.quad9.net.

Also how to run a DNS nameserver survey using DNS Benchmark - DNSbench.exe - using Wine.

Running DNS Benchmark, I found that the conclusions were that I was only using one DNS nameserver - 127.0.1.1 This was the fastest of all the nameservers inspected, but would periodically turn away requests (which was probably why I was periodically experiencing irritating delays).

Anyway, I thought this strange - I was using primary, secondary and tertiary DNS nameservers. How wrong I was as a look in Settings > Networks > WiFi revealed I had entered all three but left DNS IPv4 on "Auto".

So it was probably the BT nameserver all along - very fast but not totally reliable.

What to do?


Well, I tried quadnine.net.

You just enter one DNS namserver number 9.9.9.9 and switch auto DNS off.

It only routes to pukkha websites and uses your local data centres for fast response - it seems pretty crisp so far.

If you want Websites, warts and all, replace 9.9.9.9 with 9.9.9.10

Swarfendor437

Fri Jan 12, 2018 12:59:39 pm

Finston Pickle wrote:An article in Computer active took my fancy - how to use the world's most secure DNS server - http://www.quad9.net.

Also how to run a DNS nameserver survey using DNS Benchmark - DNSbench.exe - using Wine.

Running DNS Benchmark, I found that the conclusions were that I was only using one DNS nameserver - 127.0.1.1 This was the fastest of all the nameservers inspected, but would periodically turn away requests (which was probably why I was periodically experiencing irritating delays).

Anyway, I thought this strange - I was using primary, secondary and tertiary DNS nameservers. How wrong I was as a look in Settings > Networks > WiFi revealed I had entered all three but left DNS IPv4 on "Auto".

So it was probably the BT nameserver all along - very fast but not totally reliable.

What to do?


Well, I tried quadnine.net.

You just enter one DNS namserver number 9.9.9.9 and switch auto DNS off.

It only routes to pukkha websites and uses your local data centres for fast response - it seems pretty crisp so far.

If you want Websites, warts and all, replace 9.9.9.9 with 9.9.9.10



"IP addresses that have 127 in the first octet (for example 127.0.0.1) are reserved for loopback addresses, meaning that they point back to the local computer. For example, if I ping 127.0.0.1 from my computer, I will get a reply from my own computer. This works with any IP address beginning with 127. For example pinging 127.34.100.12 (last three octets can be any number between 0 and 255) pings my local computer as well."

[Source: https://www.answers.com/Q/What_special_ ... leshooting]

Finston Pickle

Sun Jan 14, 2018 4:38:32 pm

I can't quite see how my nameserver was a 127.x.x.x address.

Maybe this is a diversion - things seem to be working well on 9.9.9.9 - quad9.net at the moment.

Finston Pickle

Mon Jan 15, 2018 7:25:58 pm

I've found by experience that if the DNS lookup ever slows - whichever DNS namserver you use - is that powering off and restarting the O/S seems to clear something.

Also clearing the browser cache seems to have the same effect.

I wonder what is is that builds up, where (cache?) and how?

Swarfendor437

Tue Jan 16, 2018 1:08:18 pm

It's exactly the same (sort of) on a PS4 - if a game starts to play funny indicated by graphical weirdness, a reboot sorts it out - DNS has a cache as well as a browser I believe.

https://beebom.com/how-flush-dns-cache-linux/