Satellite > HughesNet Satellite > [HN7000S] DNS acceleration [N]

reply to nedriv

Re: [HN7000S] DNS acceleration [N]

reply to smokey92070
Anybody who thinks the DNS issues are affecting the @hughes.net account in their email client can also change the plain language POP and SMTP addresses to 64.98.36.135

//greg//

I think Hughes must have got serious and did something, because I am having better service today and email is back online. Just to clarify, I do not think that I am having issues with email relating specifically to DNS. I think there was problems with their HPEP servers. This is just what I think, I do not really know for sure. There were issues that I had with connectivity of secure sites, and my email was affected. I was getting DNS (N) errors as well as uplink and web acceleration errors that were really causing me severe disruption in service and this had lasted for days.

Now, the funny thing is, I took some screenshots of the issue and she posted them to the Hughesnet Facebook page and within an hour we had help from Hughes. And not only did they credit our account for the lost service, but quickly took responsibility and resolved the issue. At least for now it seems we are back up.

In addition I did reset our router to use public DNS servers vs. the "automatic from ISP" and everything seems to be fine. But we shall see. So many variables affect satellite service and you all know that. High tech stuff, but it can be a real challenge to deal with sometimes. You all are exactly the right people to work with when things go awry though. And I was happy that I was not the only one.

But there is merit to using the Hughes Facebook page though friends. I had a good experience with that. You may want to try that in the future as well as coming here.

HPEP stands for HTTP Performance Enhanced Proxy. Only web browsers connect with the HPEP servers, and then only in non-secure mode (HTTP). If you have webmail, it goes through initially. But only until you log in (HTTPS). Then your browser is no longer going through the HPEP servers.

And if you have a POP or IMAP client, it doesn't go through a HPEP server either. But they DO need a functioning DNS server to initially translate your email clients plain language server address to a numerical address.

//greg//

I understand, but there is the issue, at the entrance. I think the HPEP servers were not even allowing the switch to the DNS, and then at the same time, the DNS servers may have been malfunctioning complicating and compounding the problem. I am just theorizing, as I am not close enough to the matter and Hughes never feels the need to thoroughly explain the failure. I would suggest that there was a compounded failure. I really have not seen such a failure in where so many different types of errors were happening simultaneously. I used to install Hughes systems in Afghanistan and I used to run into all sorts of problems, most from improper configuration errors. I am probably novice in my comment, but Hughes might be going through substantial changes in both its hardware and software that is creating some "teething pains". Merely suggestive. And the other reason I suspect the HPEP servers is the issue with logging into secure sites. But then you might be entirely correct that if you can get to public non secure sites then HPEP is working and DNS is the failure. Good stuff. You know, there is this other really odd situation that I experience that has been going on for years. And no one at Hughes (though it has been investigated many times) can resolve readily the matter. When I go to Google search page, often I get DNS issues errors or of late the "duplicate headers" errors. But of note is that I cannot get to Google without being automatically directed to the HTTPS:// side of Google. Now this is a change from not being able to get to Google at all. Oh and of note is that this issue was time related. Meaning that in the morning I was able to log on to Google search pages with no problems, but then always in the afternoon to the night Google search was inaccessible to me. But now for the most part I can, but am always, and regardless of whether I type purposely HTTP:www.google.com or not, I am directed to a secured version of Google. Why?? Any thoughts on this?

I suggest you review »compnetworking.about.com/od/dns_···vers.htm. You're not considering that computers communicate with numbers. Humans communicate with words. And that IP addresses are actually numerical. They're only given words so they're easier for humans to use. The purpose of a DNS server is to convert these words into numbers that represent the numerical address. Here's a laymans version of what happens: you type "dslreports.com" into your browser address line. If you knew that the DSL Reports IP address was actually 209.123.109.175, you could use that instead of the words. But you don't, so you use the words. The DNS server then looks them up in its database, and forwards your webpage request on to 209.123.109.175. There's hex and binary conversions involved too, but hopefully this will help you understand the sequence.

Given the latency, packet loss is not unusual either. Sometimes the first page request never even arrives at the other end - or - arrives too late (after the server has timed out). That's why I never believe the first error message, I simply retransmit the address request. Same with transmission errors; browsing in bad weather over satellite can sometimes result in your request getting garbled on the way. A third reason is that this is a shared medium. During peak periods you're competing with a lot more users for access to the DNS servers. Again, always repeat your attempt before giving up.

As far as Google and HTTPS, it's probably either your computer settings or a Google setting. This should be especially evident if this is a Google-only issue. If you have auto-complete turned on for example, it could be defaulting to an earlier secure page in your cache. Plus, Google/GMail itself has settings that will cause page requests to default to secure. There's more reading matter here: »www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&h···bih=1191

But the bottom line is that the DNS servers only address HTTP requests to the HPEP serves. Non-HTTP requests are routed to the appropriate server by protocol: UDP, FTP, POP, IMAP, HTTPS, et cetera.

//greg//
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HN7000S - 98cm Prodelin/2w "pure" Osiris - ProPlus - G16/1010H - NOC:GTN - NAT 67.142.115.130 - Gateway 66.82.25.10 - DNS 66.82.4.12 and 66.82.4.8 - Firefox 8/MSIE9 - AV/Firewalled by NIS2012