[LINK] My Broken Internet

Roger Clarke Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
Thu May 20 11:28:52 AEST 2010


My xamax.com.au email also went off the air this morning.

That seemed consistent with a DNS-server problem within TPG (i.e. 
slow propagation, through gradual rundown towards TTL = zero, 
followed by failure to get access to the authoritative DN-server when 
it needed it).

So I immediately called TPG and with two choices on the IVR talked 
directly with TPG's front-line support person - I infer in the 
Phillipines.

Credit where it's due - he had some clue, worked methodically, took 
up contact with engineers once he'd done the first-level checks, and 
wrote down things like the IP-address of the DN-server whose 
cache-content I was suggesting was incorrect.

The first phone-call was 09:30 to 09:55.

At that stage, he asked for time for the engineers to do some more 
investigating.  (He didn't actually acknowledge that they knew there 
was a problem to fix;  but it seemed that way.  He also couldn't give 
me a docket or incident number.  They run it all off the login-id - 
which looks dodgy to me, but may be a pragmatic solution to an ISP's 
problem management).

I checked every quarter-hour or so.  At 11:20, it came good.  I think 
we can safely conclude that TPG's DB-server got poisoned somehow, and 
no alarm bells rang anywhere.

Many thanks to the multiple linkers who contributed!


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University



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