Mysteries of DNS (was: Re: Debian.org)

On Thursday 08 September 2011 19:28:22 cr wrote:
> Has anyone been having trouble raising Debian.org recently?
>
> I've been getting this for at least two days:
>
> Iceweasel can't establish a connection to the server at www.debian.org.
> Though the site seems valid, the browser was unable to establish a
> connection.
>
> cr

I've sussed out why this was, in the light of more recent developments.

I've since installed Debian 6.0.2.1 successfully on my laptop, everything 
worked except my browsers, which would talk to my wireless router, I could 
ping internet addresses, but Iceweasel said 'cannot find server at  
www.google.co.nz' and Epiphany, rather more usefully, 'cannot resolve 
www.google.co.nz' (or any other address I tried).

Aha!  Clue!   My resolv.conf still lists 'nameserver 203.97.33.1'     
(clear.net's DNS server)  but I'm now with Orcon, and Googling unearthed 
http://www.nzconnections.net.nz/DNS_Servers which lists clear.net's DNS 
as  'blocks external connections'.    So changed the DNS setting in my router 
to Orcon's DNS and all is good.

So that's why my old installation was having trouble with some URL's like 
Debian.org.   BUT it worked with most (like Google and Trademe) - must have 
been because Iceweasel still had many URL's cached so didn't need to use DNS.   
Of course, when I installed a new Debian with new browsers, their caches were 
empty so they couldn't find anything without using DNS.

cr

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