Need an Open DNS Server in the UK

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Smith
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John Smith

Hi guys;

I'm trying to resolve a long and drawn out problem with a person's computer.
I've narrowed it down to what I believe is a DNS server issue with his ISP.
It's the only left on a long diagnostic path so I'd like him to try a
different DNS server then the one his ISP is providing.

To that end I let him use my private DNS server but the geographic distance
between Canada and the UK is too far and the requests time out. He's in the
UK so what I'm after is a UK DNS server that's open to the public so that he
can try it see if his issue is resolved (pardon the pun :-)

I can't seem to find a public DNS server in the UK - Can anyone help with
that? It would make my life a lot easier.
 
John Smith said:
Hi guys;

I'm trying to resolve a long and drawn out problem with a person's computer.
I've narrowed it down to what I believe is a DNS server issue with his ISP.
It's the only left on a long diagnostic path so I'd like him to try a
different DNS server then the one his ISP is providing.
Click to expand...

Very unlikely but just barely possible. I would actually put a sniffer
(with permission)
or netmon on the line before I would seriously consider such an unlikely
case.
To that end I let him use my private DNS server but the geographic distance
between Canada and the UK is too far and the requests time out. He's in the
UK so what I'm after is a UK DNS server that's open to the public so that he
can try it see if his issue is resolved (pardon the pun :-)

I can't seem to find a public DNS server in the UK - Can anyone help with
that? It would make my life a lot easier.
Click to expand...

Almost all DNS servers will respond and although it would be impolite to
configure a lot of clients to anybody else's server, a very temporary and
low
volume test is not likely to be a big deal. You must only find one that
does
actual recursion which is trivial to discover using NSLookup.

You can also just install something like BIND-PE on the users box and let
his
box do the work solo.

But you should be able to confirm or eliminate the ISP DNS by a judicious
use
of NSLookup or Dig from the user's station.

In fact, one wonders how you have determined that the ISP DNS might be at
fault
if you haven't done such tests already.

Perhaps you should post your tests and results and ask for help with the
actual
problem.....
 
Thanks for your help - I will dig one up. I was under the mistaken
impression that you couldn't use one unless you belonged to the ISP's
network :-)
 
John Smith said:
Thanks for your help - I will dig one up. I was under the mistaken
impression that you couldn't use one unless you belonged to the ISP's
network :-)
Click to expand...

Very seldom -- and then only if the DNS is setup very carefully (in
conjunction
with network filters).

If the DNS is publicly accessible and if it does full recursion then it
likely makes
no distinction between external and internal clients (be polite and no one
would
likely mind.)

Email servers go to some trouble to prevent external to external relaying;
allowing
only internal clients, or external to internal relay.
 
That seems to be what I found. I checked three major ISP's in the UK and I
was able to do an nslookup on the third one and I tried both an IP address
lookup and domain name and both came back correct.

This should help eliminate DNS from the equation - thanks!
 
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