DNS problem -

Tue Nov 12 01:21:43 UTC 2013

On 11/11/13 19:12, Tim wrote:
> That'd be HTTP caching.  They don't need to subvert DNS records for you
> to see cached websites.  Unless they're doing something stupid, your web
> requests are still made of the original IPs, just the results are
> cached.
>
> I have the same thing, here, on my LAN.  A Squid proxy server, so that
> if I have guests doing the "look at this" thing amongst themselves, or a
> bunch of Windows PCs doing updates, everyone after the first query sees
> the cached version.
>
> You can try it out, and see.  Find a public DNS server that you can
> access on a different-than-usual port.  Make a rule on your gateway that
> connection attempts to your router IP and DNS port get redirected to the
> external DNS server on the unusual port.  It's probably possible to make
> an outgoing redirection rule on the PC that your testing, itself.
>
> As far as them optimising things, with satellite internet, there's a
> prolonged propagation delay.  So them doing local caching means that you
> get to see cached data on this side of the satellite, rather than have
> to wait for it to come through it.
>
> Years ago I used an ISP that did that sort of thing, their service was
> dreadful.  Everything was late, worse than dial-up.  Their crap
> performance was the thing that pushed me into running my own DNS
> servers.  Their DNS servers were even worse than their everything else
> that they did.  Frequently, it could take half a minute for it to return
> a result.  When you consider that way too many pages are a construct of
> data from here, there, and everywhere, not just the sites own service,
> it could take an age to load a page.
>
> Any service that mucks you about, and fobs you off, and leaves you
> trying to resolve a problem for days on end, doesn't deserve your
> custom.  Especially if the problem is theirs.

As I said I don't know exactly what they are doing but I do know that 
I'm not smart enough to work around it. I spent quite a bit of effort 
Googling "Viasat Exede" and it seems there's a dearth of information 
other than sales hype. Here's an excerpt from a interview I did find, 
still not very informative:

"The teleports are associated regionally with customers, so there's no 
dynamic routing being done by the satellite. "If we did routing in the 
satellite, we'd be getting about 10 gigabits of throughput," Dankberg 
said. "With bridging, we get more than 10 times that." Just for scale, 
140 gigabits per second is 20 times the bandwidth capability of the 
previously existing WildBlue satellite service. "The two largest 
satellite operators have about a hundred satellites," Dankberg said, 
"and between them they have the same bandwidth as this one 
satellite."That sort of capacity, he says, alters the economics of 
satellite broadband.

There are some things bandwidth can't overcome, and one of them is the 
laws of physics. Satellite is still prone to latency, which means it's 
not the best choice for applications that need a short 
time-of-flight—like online gaming, for example (unless you're a big fan 
of lag). "We tell people up front if they're looking for a gaming 
connection, this isn't it," Dankberg conceded.

There's also a small, but noticeable delay on voice-over-IP phone calls 
over Exede, but not any more than a typical wireless call. I placed a 
call over a VoIP phone tethered to an Exede home unit, and the 
conversation was better than cellular quality."

Source: 
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/01/how-viasats-exede-makes-satellite-broadband-not-suck/

He makes it sound that it's essential to stick with their software, some 
parts of which are apparently contained in the modem. As I said I am 
quite happy with the service, it normally works well and there is 
nothing better available to me. I also recently subscribed to their voip 
service and find it superior to the cell phone [we discontinued the 
land-line long ago] there is usually no detectable delay due to transit 
time to the satellite. My only problem was the intermittent DNS. It has 
not failed today that I am aware of. The kids are not happy due to it's 
inability to handle on-line gaming with their brother in Chicago. That 
is not a requirement in my book.

If anyone understands what they are doing and can explain it to me I am 
interested.

Bob

-- 

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box10   Fedora-19/64 bit Linux/XFCE