Microsoft???

To help stop problems like these, use OPEN DNS. It's a free DNS server which is HUGE, and most likely faster than your ISP's own servers (massively faster if you're on VM cable lol).

They're secure, reliable, and free. You can even sign up for a free account which allows you (and only you) to track domain request stats, and gives you white and black lists for what sites your network is/isn't allowed to access. You don't have to sign up to use them however, that's just an optional extra. They have built-in phishing protection too! It's a great service.

Their site gives full details on how to change your DNS servers, either on the router (which will mean all PCs use OpenDNS) or just on individual PCs (including instructions for Vista). Give them a go and see if it sorts the issue you're having.
 
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aix0 said:
No they don't. Try pinging 207.46.197.32, if you get a response, it's a DNS issue.
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Well they have done on most of their sites for about 10 years. I just pinged microsoft.com and got request timed out (ip 207.46.232.182). I also get timeouts from hotmail.com, msn.com and live.com.

The IP you've cited appears to be a one off - and also appears to be a redirect from windows.com to microsoft.com
 
Microsoft, like Google hide behind a server farm of proxies and have dropped Pings & Traceroutes for many years.
Sure you can find the odd IP that will respond, however they are few and far between and testing your connection by using Microsoft or Google is not a good idea as you can get a "false, positive" result.

One of the very best sites to test against is actually www.novell.com

They have amazing uptime and will respond to all of your Ping & Traceroute requests as well as nearly always being "up".
You can also test your DNS resolution, reverse DNS resolution etc.

Minly becuase they aren't "hiding" they make a much more reliable test site.
 
Rainmaker said:
Not sure I follow :confused: If you mean signing up and tracking YOUR stats that's not possible (just like Gmail is free, but I can't sign up and see your emails).
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If all you have to do is change your DNS servers on your computer or your router, and then sign up on the website for this, how is it going to track the usage? Is it by IP? What's stopping someone else on the IP signing up for the same service?
 
Clown said:
If all you have to do is change your DNS servers on your computer or your router, and then sign up on the website for this, how is it going to track the usage? Is it by IP? What's stopping someone else on the IP signing up for the same service?
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To be honest Clown you're better off reading their FAQ as it's full of useful info. In a nutshell though, yes. You change the DNS settings on the router (or on individual PCs if that's what you want) and voila - you're using OpenDNS for free.

If you wish to sign up for an account, to track stats, white/black list, block phishing or adult sites from certain IPs etc, you can do so. You're right in that it uses your IP to "tag" your account so that only people on your IP can read the stats (and only then if they have the username and password you set up when you opened the account - just like an email account).

As they say, it's fast, it's secure and it's free. I like it anyway :D I saw a huge speed increase when I swapped my brother over from VM's default DNS to OpenDNS. With my own connection (24mbps UK Online ADSL2+) the increase was fairly marginal, but still apparent.

Bear in mind I'm talking about surf speed/page response times of course. DNS hasn't got much to do with downloading or download speeds. As I said, have a read of their site. It's a great service, and used by some of the world's biggest names now.
 
Rainmaker said:
To help stop problems like these, use OPEN DNS. It's a free DNS server which is HUGE, and most likely faster than your ISP's own servers (massively faster if you're on VM cable lol).

They're secure, reliable, and free. You can even sign up for a free account which allows you (and only you) to track domain request stats, and gives you white and black lists for what sites your network is/isn't allowed to access. You don't have to sign up to use them however, that's just an optional extra. They have built-in phishing protection too! It's a great service.

Their site gives full details on how to change your DNS servers, either on the router (which will mean all PCs use OpenDNS) or just on individual PCs (including instructions for Vista). Give them a go and see if it sorts the issue you're having.
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rainmaker you are a genius, that got it working fine straight away, great stuff.

thanks guys for all your input into this one, it really was driving me crazy, just have to do an hour or 2 of updates now lol
 
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