DNS problems with weather.gov

[Mohamed Ellozy]

I hope this is considered hiking related, since checking the forecast is an essential part of hike planning

For the past week or more I have had timeouts almost every time I try to contact a weather.gov site; connecting after two or three attempts. It is not a browser problem; I get it with Firefox and Chrome and, more to the point, with nslookup. My ISP is Time-Warner Cable. Has anyone else had this (very irritating) problem?

I am sorely tempted to put some addresses in my host table, but then we use DNS rather than a hosts table for many excellent reasons.

Suggestions much appreciated!

I should probably have made clear that I have no other DNS problems.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

I just went to that site without problems, Mohamed. Is your DNS setup pointing to the DNS provided by your ISP? That might be the problem.

You might change to the Google DNS and see what happens.

 

[Quietman]

I was just able to browse through the graphical forecast maps that I often use with out any issues.

 

[bobandgeri]

Had issues yesterday, but is working now. We use the Google DNS servers.

 

[jniehof]

I had a few DNS failures last week on Comcast's standard DNS and I think it happened once at work, too. Very isolated; much more frequently I'm getting the "forecast at a glance, hourly graph, point forecast not available" errors. Weather underground is my usual alternative although I suppose I should avoid that at work. I have another "fun" alternative but it's obscene.

 

[Mohamed Ellozy]

I suspected a problem at my end, so I power cycled the cable modem and wireless router and restarted my computer, no luck. So I bit the bullet and made a hosts entry for forecast.weather.gov and radar.weather.gov (same IP). Primitive, but works like a charm

I have forgotten the finer points of hosts file syntax ... each of these hosts has five IP addresses. I have only put one in the hosts file:

	129.15.96.22	forecast.weather.gov radar.weather.gov

Do I simply put in five lines, one for each IP address?

 

[bikehikeskifish]

IP host1 [alias [alias]]
.
.
.


(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file))

Tim

 

[walker]

I also use Google DNS

The IP addresses are:
Primary = 8.8.8.8
Secondary = 8.8.4.4

I have no problems with this. It find "VFTT" and "The Mountain Wondering Blog Site" every time.

What other site do you really need?

Hike Free and Live...Walker

 

[Mohamed Ellozy]

IP host1 [alias [alias]]

Thanks, Tim, but that is not my problem. I know how to give two or more names for a single IP (see my post above); I need several IPs for a single name. Lots of googling got me nowhere.

Since my problem is with a single site, and since I have a working kludge (note that I do not call it a "solution") I am reluctant to change my DNS server.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

I am reluctant to change my DNS server.

You might give it a try - it only takes a couple of seconds and you can always switch it back. No need to change the DNS settings on your router, either - just your PC.

The reason I suggested Google's DNS is mostly because of speed. I have no clue why a distant DNS is consistently faster than the DNS of my local ISP, but - it is. Speed is relative, of course. It only takes me about 4 or 5 searches and I begin to think - it's always been this way, hasn't it?

 

[bobandgeri]

Comcast has issues with their DNS servers from time to time that impacts some users by area. Last time that happened we changed to Googles on our router so all the PC's in our house would use it -haven't seen an issue since.

 

[weatherman]

I'm thinking it's either a national Comcast issue or a national NWS issue, as I've had similar problems the past week or so out here in CO. Better today, though. I think it might be a national NWS issue as my alternate ways to get NWS products (e.g. not through point and click, getting AFDs through the main NWS site as opposed to via the forecast offices' main pages) have worked better.

Weatherman

 

[buckyball1]

M--same problems over last week or two? with Time Warner/Firefox in accessing noaa site--apparently system wide not individual user issue...and VFTT has exhibited slight "hangup" issue when moving from Forums page to specific forms for th last 2? weeks


jim