dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
Search similar:


uniqs
631

abitbent
join:2004-04-23
Brantford, ON

abitbent

Member

Waiting for www.....

Thought I'd ask here in case anyone is having a similar experience. I just switched to Start last month after being a Rogers customer for years.

The old Rogers setup had me using the Rogers supplied router/modem combo and it seemed to work just fine.

Since I'm renting a modem from Start, I could only get the "modem only" so I'm running a D-Link DiR-601 with the latest firmware.

The speeds with Start are fantastic however since the switch I'm getting complaints from both my wife and son who are both on wifi, and I'm seeing the same thing here on my machine which is wired.

Clicking on links or making website requests causes the browser to hang for some reason with the status reading...

Waiting for www... (whatever host, it doesn't matter which webpage it changes all the time)

Sometimes a refresh helps, sometimes not.

I know most of you will think that it's congestion at the webpages we're visiting but honestly we visit the same sites quite often and I never had this lag with Rogers.

I've read that it could be doing a DNS lookup and getting stuck there, so I've tried changing from the one Start hands out when the modem DHCP's home to OpenDNS and currently I'm giving Google a try.

This hasn't seemed to change things.

The only difference here since my Start switchover obviously is my Start modem and now of course I'm using my D-Link router.

Anyone else struggle with this? I think my next action is to just replace the router and see what I get and if that doesn't fix it, perhaps this Start supplied modem is having issues?

I'm up for any thoughts you guys can provide my way.

DrugTito
join:2013-01-17
canada

DrugTito

Member

Did you check Modem logs? Any errors there?

Which Modem did you get?

I would honestly recommend you get rid of D-Link and get something like ASUS RT-N16 (at least, or greater) and run Tomato or DD-WRT (i would recommend Tomato shibby firmware) on it.

rocca
Start.ca
Premium Member
join:2008-11-16
London, ON

rocca to abitbent

Premium Member

to abitbent
Can you factory reset the modem and go direct to modem to see if you can duplicate without the router? Also did you have same speed package before with Rogers? Thanks.

abitbent
join:2004-04-23
Brantford, ON

abitbent

Member

said by rocca:

Can you factory reset the modem and go direct to modem to see if you can duplicate without the router? Also did you have same speed package before with Rogers? Thanks.

Thanks Rocca... will give this a try. I was on high speed extreme so I think the Start package (Advanced) is similar or the same.
abitbent

abitbent to DrugTito

Member

to DrugTito
said by DrugTito:

Did you check Modem logs? Any errors there?

Which Modem did you get?

I would honestly recommend you get rid of D-Link and get something like ASUS RT-N16 (at least, or greater) and run Tomato or DD-WRT (i would recommend Tomato shibby firmware) on it.

I was looking into this and it looks cool, including being able to log monthly usage. Something about loading open source firmware on a device makes me nervous though!

rocca
Start.ca
Premium Member
join:2008-11-16
London, ON

rocca

Premium Member

said by abitbent:

I was looking into this and it looks cool, including being able to log monthly usage. Something about loading open source firmware on a device makes me nervous though!

I just picked up the ASUS RT-N66U myself and put Tomato on it, it's pretty slick. The default firmware was pretty powerful too, but I had some special VPN requirements I needed and the Tomato firmware did the trick.
jimmyfogg
join:2010-12-30

jimmyfogg

Member

I'm running a Linksys EA6500. It's not very customizable, but VERY user friendly, and has been rock solid for me. Been able to stream Netflix in HD over 802.11n to an AppleTV, while pushing NHL GameCenter Live to an XBOX 360 wired using PoE adapters, and downloading a torrent in the background on my MacBook Pro. With random usage between an iPhone 4, iPhone 5 and an iPad mini (iMessages/facebook/pinterest) all at the same time with no hiccups. The only time this router has been reset is from a few power outages, and firmware updates.

DrugTito
join:2013-01-17
canada

DrugTito

Member

I love my RT-N66U.

I think its worth every dollar.

Running shibby firmware:
»tomato.groov.pl/

rogersmogers
@start.ca

rogersmogers to abitbent

Anon

to abitbent
I got myself a ALIX board and put Pfsense on it to make a true router/firewall.

pnear
join:2002-06-12
Milton, ON

pnear to abitbent

Member

to abitbent
I noticed similar issues after installing a DLink Router recently. I think it's due to their "Advanced DNS Service".

Seemed like DNS lookups were taking longer than they should (similar to your symptoms). Looked in the settings and sure enough the Advanced DNS Service was enabled. Disabled that, rebooted the router, and things seem much snappier now.

If your menus are similar to mine, you'll find it by clicking on Setup, Internet, then Manual Internet Connection Setup. Clear the checkbox beside "Advanced DNS Service" and save. Reboot. See if things seem snappier.

-Pete

abitbent
join:2004-04-23
Brantford, ON

abitbent

Member

Thanks for the suggestions folks. I did check and Advanced DNS is turned off.

Rocca is resetting the modem as easy as depressing the microswitch at the back and letting it power cycle? Is there anything else I need to do before it re-provisions on the network?

Also, what is the lan IP of the modem and is there an admin console I can log into to see indications of problems/logs/etc?

Thanks again folks for all your help.

rocca
Start.ca
Premium Member
join:2008-11-16
London, ON

rocca

Premium Member

Yes, hold that pin in with a pen/pin for 15 seconds, you should see all the lights blink and it will restart. The modem is at 192.168.100.1, no user/password required.

abitbent
join:2004-04-23
Brantford, ON

abitbent

Member

Did the modem reset and I'm not seeing much of a change. I went through my DLink DIR-601 with a fine toothed comb and have been trying all kinds of tweaks but the waiting for www.... still prevails.

I'm still not convinced that it's not the router. I see that DD-WRT can be installed on my router so I may give this a try and see how it goes. To me though it just looks like a DNS issue but I've flogged that one to death and can't make heads or tails of it.

I'll keep plugging away.

Not sending my ISP money to Rogers every month makes me giggle still.
abitbent

abitbent

Member

Thought I'd throw this up to in case anyone is interested:



rocca
Start.ca
Premium Member
join:2008-11-16
London, ON

rocca to abitbent

Premium Member

to abitbent
What happens if you run it without the router?

abitbent
join:2004-04-23
Brantford, ON

abitbent

Member

said by rocca:

What happens if you run it without the router?

My wife and 18 year old freak out because they lose their wireless connection... that's what happens! :P

I haven't tried this yet and since it's so temperamental and intermittent, I'd have to work with it this way for awhile to narrow it down.

Since we're on the topic though, if I do eliminate the router and go straight to modem, is the network going to give me an issue because my MAC has changed (from my router to my pc)?

I remember back in the day, Rogers would freak out if you did this and you had to call support for reset.
bt
join:2009-02-26
canada

bt

Member

said by abitbent:

Since we're on the topic though, if I do eliminate the router and go straight to modem, is the network going to give me an issue because my MAC has changed (from my router to my pc)?

Nope. Long time since that's been the case (@home days?).
Stescotty
join:2013-01-30

1 edit

Stescotty to abitbent

Member

to abitbent
Have you tried changing your external DNS to resolve to a public DNS server. I've seen for what ever reason DNS resolution be a bit flaky so instead of using the ISP DNS.. Do this on the workstation as it will bypass the routers DNS forwarding.

Or download a small little application called DNSjumper (for Windows) and try a few different DNS servers from there. Once again on your workstation/laptop.

It may be that your Router can't handle the DNS properly.

abitbent
join:2004-04-23
Brantford, ON

abitbent

Member

said by Stescotty:

Have you tried changing your external DNS to resolve to a public DNS server. I've seen for what ever reason DNS resolution be a bit flaky so instead of using the ISP DNS.. Do this on the workstation as it will bypass the routers DNS forwarding.

Or download a small little application called DNSjumper (for Windows) and try a few different DNS servers from there. Once again on your workstation/laptop.

It may be that your Router can't handle the DNS properly.

I have tried this Stescotty but only at the router level. Your idea is a good one to try it on the clients instead which will bypass the router for dns entirely.
said by bt:

said by abitbent:

Since we're on the topic though, if I do eliminate the router and go straight to modem, is the network going to give me an issue because my MAC has changed (from my router to my pc)?

Nope. Long time since that's been the case (@home days?).

Yes BT... it was the old @home days.... back when Rogers was cool and they weren't raping you for usage. :P

rocca
Start.ca
Premium Member
join:2008-11-16
London, ON

rocca to abitbent

Premium Member

to abitbent
said by abitbent:

said by rocca:

What happens if you run it without the router?

My wife and 18 year old freak out because they lose their wireless connection... that's what happens! :P

:)
Stescotty
join:2013-01-30

Stescotty

Member

What happened to the days of no internet...You mean we actually had to hang around each other and talk....That's SO 1995!!!!!

abitbent
join:2004-04-23
Brantford, ON

abitbent

Member

said by Stescotty:

What happened to the days of no internet...You mean we actually had to hang around each other and talk....That's SO 1995!!!!!

Before then it was BBS systems, Commodore 64s and Cocos and Atari ST!

300 baud baby!
Stescotty
join:2013-01-30

Stescotty

Member

The best is when you on the BBS and your mom picks up the phone and ruins everything!!!!

Good times...