Initial delay accessing websites, once there, little problems

videobruce

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 21, 2005
Messages
412
Hard to describe this other than I have noticed a somewhat long delay (5-10 seconds) from the time I click a bookmark and the site starts to load.
I run a data activity application (Bit Meter) and I see what is and what isn't coming down the pike. When I click on a bookmark (or manually enter a address in) there is a noticeable period where there is no response.

This is NOT a "speed" issue. Once I'm in the site, navigation seems fine changing pages etc. There does not seem to be any pattern, some probably are slower than others, but overall there is a very noticeable delay.

The only change is a newer Router (TP-Link Archer C7 v4) but I don't see how that has anything to do with it.

Specs;
Win 7 Pro
Opera Classic (v12.18)
No A/V program actively running
I'm using my ISP's DNS servers
Spectrum/TWC 100Mbps service
Router Firewall enabled
Wired connection
No fancy settings in the Router. The only changes made from default are static IP addresses for my devices set in the device itself, not in the Router.

I have run TraceRoutes to various addresses and there is no change as to the latency in the initial hops, including my Router.


Ideas? Questions?
 
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Sounds like issues with DNS resolution to me. Either the resolvers are overloaded and slow to respond, or one or two of those you have defined for your PC aren't responding at all and the OS is waiting for the attempt to time out before hitting a resolver you've defined that does work.

Try using some other DNS resolvers, such as Google's (8.8.4.4, 8.8.8.8), or Quad9 (9.9.9.9).
 
tracert - that will show you the hop that's causing the hiccups

Agree, sounds like a DNS issue, or an ISP routing issue. You can always jump to another DNS (I can think of a bunch of free ones, with various pros/cons). If it's the ISP, you can call them with data and they often will at least let you jump a few steps in their troubleshooting flowchart (Did you reboot your router? Three times?)

Also, reboot your router. Three times.
 
It does sound like a DNS issue. An easy way to check is to get the IP address of a site, then try entering the IP as the URL and comparing that to the website entered as a domain name. I would recommend trying a site you havent tried before, or clearing your ARP cache just to make the comparison apples to apples,
 
I do agree that it sounds as a DNS issue, but why all of a sudden and why doesn't the problem continue afterwards?
What's up with the triple Router re-boot??

I have changed DNS servers. I didn't take note of which sites had the longest lag (so to speak), it just seemed random.

try entering the IP as the URL and comparing that to the website entered as a domain name
You lost me there.
 
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I do agree that it sounds as a DNS issue, but why all of a sudden and why doesn't the problem continue afterwards?


Because once your local resolver (e.g., the OS itself, also your router should you be using it for DNS for the LAN clients) are caching the info for a period of time. It may be whatever time-to-live (TTL) the owner of the domain has set, or the local resolver may have its own cache timeout.


What's up with the triple Router re-boot??


Superstition. Once is fine.
 
Here is an example of what I am talking about......

TCP-IP uses an order of precedence when trying to resolve a domain name.. When you enter "www.hardocp.com" this is actually what your system is doing:

1) Your machine looks to see if you are actually www.hardocp.com. If not, then....
2) Your machine looks in your local HOSTS file (which is in \Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc). If its not listed there then...
3) Your DNS server is queried.. If its not there, then....
4) Your NETBIOS name resolution sequence will be used.

Once you successfully resolve a DNS address, its stored locally on your machine in a DNS cache. It will expire after a certain amount of time, but the point is that once its resolved, your machine wont keep asking for DNS resolution of the site it already knows. If you did your test on a clean machine, and you got the delay before the site loaded, the DNS entry is not in your local cache. If you loaded the site a second time, there should be no delay at all (if your DNS server was playing a role).

You dont NEED to use DNS for the internet to work though. You can just enter in the IP address of the site you want to navigate to. For example, we can figure out what www.google.com resolves to by querying your ISP's DNS server via nslookup.

Go to a command prompt and enter "nslookup www.google.com" you should get something that looks like this:

upload_2018-2-23_19-45-27.png


See the IP's listed? Enter 172.217.4.132 into your web browser:

upload_2018-2-23_19-48-3.png


Want to take a guess what will pop up??

So what I was saying is when you enter the IP address like we just did, you ARE NOT using ANY DNS at all. If DNS is causing your issue, this method should have NO DELAY. If you still get the delay, then you have something else going on...

Make sense?
 

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Ok, the numerical IP address instead of the text address. Sorry, I didn't read it correctly. :(

How does the Router fit into all of this other than assigning fixed DNS server addresses as opposed to what your ISP provides?
 
Your router is most likely your DNS server.. If you go to a command prompt and type "ipconfig /all" you'll get a bunch of information. Look for your DNS server. If your DNS server is the same as your Router, then your router is your DNS server. Here is a snip of mine:

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : home
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Centrino(R) Ultimate-N 6300 AGN
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 24-77-03-A7-39-4C
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::356a:cd0:faed:4cc9%3(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.57.102.23(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, February 21, 2018 3:45:11 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, February 24, 2018 8:17:12 PM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.57.102.90
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.57.102.90
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 35944195
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-21-D5-52-55-D4-BE-D9-48-28-53
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.57.102.90
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Notice how the same IP shows up for the DCHP Serer, DNS Server, and Default Gateway? That's a hint that this is indeed my internal router.

Your router (by definition) does **not** assign any DNS servers. DHCP is what assigns your DNS unless you over ride it by assigning it locally (which you can easily do). You can change the DNS server information on your local machine by going into your TCP-IP settings within your network settings. If you go there, there is a radio button you can change to specify the server. Click that button, and enter 8.8.8.8 for the IP and you will bypass your router for DNS.

upload_2018-2-23_21-4-48.png




As others have stated, you can bypass is by configuring TCP-IP on the affected machine to use another DNS server (such as google which is 8.8.8.8).
 
I added two addresses in the Router for DNS servers.
Isn't that more sensible than changing one using the O/S in a single (or multiple) PC setup? Even thou it's still assigned to the Routers IP, it still gets handed off to one of those specific servers, correct?
 
Yes, its fine to change the setting in your router, but it sounded like you were still trying to troubleshoot to find out where the delay was/is. If you want to rule out your router being at fault, then set it on the actual device we are talking about. If you wanted to see if your ISP's DNS was the issue, then switching it on the router would be the test you would want to do.
 
Wireshark... for recording what happen on the networks and the corresponding timings.

Else: is that delay for all bookmarks or specific one ? Could be some cloudflare or other ddos protection of the sites you visit ? Or did you surf in private mode and need to download lots of JavaScript libs because no browser cache ?
 
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