OpenDNS works, then stops multiple times per day
I have had OpenDNS running for weeks with no problems, but recently I have begun to have many instances per day where it stops working. The router is set up properly with the correct DNS addresses, and that doesn't change. The updater is running, but when I click on update, sometimes it begins to work, and other times not. When I reboot the router, it works for a while, but will later stop. I am not sure how to diagnose, much less fix this problem. Can someone suggest where to look?
I have a Belkin AC750.
Thanks, Kevin
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OpenDNS Updater is configured to "Send Dnd-O-Matic updates" and "Run hidden". It never required manual intervention before, so maybe this means nothing.
The OpenDNS server IPs are configured in my router, not any local PC's.
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One more thing I just found. The IP Updates History looks a bit strange. Is this a clue?
OpenDNS IP Update History.txt -
"OpenDNS Updater is configured to "Send Dnd-O-Matic updates""
This is the problem. Disable this option. You do not really want to use DNS-O-Matic, do you?
[Brian Hartvigsen - Fixed your link]
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I meant http://www.dnsomatic.com/
This forum is lousy for propagating links. :(
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Dns-O-Matic is disabled, but I still keep losing contact with OpenDNS. The first screenshot was taken just a couple of minutes ago. This time I did NOT touch the Update now button, but now it say I am using OpenDNS.
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"Dns-O-Matic is disabled, but I still keep losing contact with OpenDNS."
Contact with OpenDNS? Funny terminology! ;-) There is no such thing. You just send your DNS lookups to OpenDNS, because you adviced your router to do so..
Ignore the Updater messages for now. What's the output of this command?
nslookup -type=txt debug.opendns.com.
If you get an error message, post also the complete output of "ipconfig /all".
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Sorry about the poor terminology. I'm not exactly an IT expert, but if you want to talk chemistry...
Seriously, though, here are the details from the nslookup and ipconfig. I tried the nslookup twice, once by pasting your text exactly, and one by typing it in (since it appeared that it had extra spaces in the pasted version).
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Ah yes, all clear now.
You do not really use OpenDNS at all. The main reason is that you have IPv6 connectivity enabled, and your system seems to raise DNS lookups mainly over IPv6. Beside the fact that you don't have an OpenDNS IPv6 resolver address configured, but another one, the enhanced features beyond pure DNS are not supported yet by OpenDNS, like content filtering and stats and stuff.
If you want to use OpenDNS to its full, you must disable IPv6 for this network connection and to work only via IPv4. Else you almost will be successfully circumventing OpenDNS...
"I tried the nslookup twice, once by pasting your text exactly, and one by typing it in (since it appeared that it had extra spaces in the pasted version)."
Don't worry, I did this for a better optical recognition only. ;-) Spaces don't matter anyway in this context. There's no difference in the output.
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So if I understand correctly, I need to disable IPv6 on my router. I'm glad you are helping me here, because I would never have figured that out. So here is a screenshot of my Belkin router configuration page. It's not clear to me which to select to disable IPv6. Any suggestions? Thanks.
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Different router, but mine has a checkbox to disable IPv6. YMMV
Also you can disable IPv6 from your network adaptor. Right-click adaptor, then Properties/Networking...
(see attachment)
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I did not really think about your router, but about your computer. I cannot comment on this router option without having studied the related manual.
It is probably easier to disable IPv6 on the computer.
Here for Windows 7: https://store.opendns.com/setup/operatingsystem/windows-7
You follow the instructions until you hit this: http://shared.opendns.com/img/start_win7_5.gif
See the two items IPv6 and IPv4? Simply uncheck only IPv6, confirm with "Ok" until all of this is closed again. IPv6 is gone then for this connection. I would expect that you can use OpenDNS with no problems from then on.
If you ever need IPv6 again for whatever reason, simply enable it again the same way.
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This depends on at least two factors:
- Does a particular device use IPv6 at all? If not, no problems. If IPv6 is used,.....
- What is the priority on this system? If first IPv4 and then IPv6, then problems are unlikely.
If IPv6 has priority over IPv4 (like on your computer), then OpenDNS' features and DNS service is rarely used, if at all.
You may quick-check on any device by visiting http://welcome.opendns.com/ in a browser.
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You could also try using 0:0:0:0:0:ffff:d043:dede and 0:0:0:0:0:ffff:d043:dcdc in the IPv6 DNS configuration on your router. These are just the IPv4 addresses (208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220) mapped into IPv6. This doesn't actually use IPv6 and not all IPv6 stacks support mapped addresses (see the Wikipedia article on IPv6 for more info), but it may help you out without having to disable IPv6 completely.
This should work for most Linux devices, Windows post XP and OS X. Basically anything that uses a unified IPv4 and IPv6 stack. If it doesn't work, just disable IPv6 ;-)
An example of this working:
linode:~$ dig @::ffff:d043:dede myip.opendns.com +short
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Aha, you like to introduce more complexity? You'll get it!
Why do you think that OpenDNS is not compliant with IPv6? As far as I know, they are fully compliant.
http://www.opendns.com/technology/ipv6/
It's just that the features beyond pure DNS are not in effect for DNS lookups via/over IPv6. They are in effect regarding IPv6 (AAAA record) lookups over IPv4.
That said, if you want to use the enhanced features beyond pure DNS (like content filtering or stats), you must ensure that you send your DNS lookups to their IPv4 resolver addresses only, not to their (or any other) IPv6 resolver addresses.
This means, you can even continue to use IPv6 connectivity, you just must remove any IPv6 DNS resolver addresses from your configuration.
Recommending to remove IPv6 as a whole was for simplicity reasons only. In reality it is sufficient to eliminate only DNS lookups via IPv6 (i.e. to IPv6 resolver addresses). You wanted it more complex, you get what you want...
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"Doing it on each device doesn't seem practical, especially since the kids' computer is an XP device."
As I said above, if a device/system doesn't have IPv6, or if IPv4 has priority over IPv6, there will be no issues regarding content filtering and stats and stuff. Windows XP does not have IPv6 activated by default, and if you activated it earlier, you can easily disable it:
net stop tcpip6
netsh interface ipv6 uninstall
You can even (only) change the priority of IPv4 over IPv6 and much more (instead of removing it): http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852
(As you seem to want more options and complexity...)
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Here's the update. I set up both IPv4 and IPv6 DNS as suggested above. It worked for a while. However, my router is still going around OpenDNS sometimes. Working on the PC this morning, and the OpenDNS updater popped up saying I was no longer using OpenDNS. To confirm it, I checked the internetbadguys.com site, and sure enough, I am not using it. A few minutes later, and all is working again.
Any other suggestions?
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While looking through your Router's Manual, do you also use the Norton content filtering options offered for the router? If so, this would interfere with OpenDNS. Better select "no filter". Below this option there's a link to configure your DNS settings. Follow it to check that there are only OpenDNS resolver addresses configured.
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@Brian
"You could also try using 0:0:0:0:0:ffff:d043:dede and 0:0:0:0:0:ffff:d043:dcdc in the IPv6 DNS configuration on your router."You should really include this information in your IPv6 sandbox page as an alternative option for those using content filtering and/or stats and such. Although for experts this may be obvious, it's not for the normal user fighting with/against the upcoming IPv6 era.
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