MTNL Broadband: GMAIL / ORKUT doesnt with opendns < FIX

[genexed]

Hi since yesterday I couldn't access gmail/orkut using open dns server. But I could access using mtnl dns servers. Actually after little search I found that google has started new indian based servers for quick access (latency around 30 ms) and MTNL is using this setting and is blocking access to server in U.S. ..probably to decrease load on its bandwidth pipeline.

Anyways I added new servers to my host file and now both sites open quicker than ever, just hope google with stick with server ips and will not change often.

new servers are
209.85.153.83 www.gmail.com
209.85.153.104 Google
209.85.153.85 www.orkut.com

 

[mgcarley]

These must be the server's we're peering with. They're located in Bombay.

 

[elepton]

This is awesome. I'm getting a ping of ~66ms to google.com. Wonder if they are using anycast. Seems not: google.com from my dreamhost server resolved to 4 IP addresses in 74.125.19.0/24 and gets ping times of ~11ms. google.com from my Airtel connection in Noida resolves to just one A record pointing to 209.85.231.104.

 

[Sushubh]

using google dns?

 

[elepton]

If you mean Google Public DNS, that doesn't come into play here at all. I don't use Google Public DNS. The authoritative nameservers for google.com (ns1.google.com (216.239.32.10), ns2.google.com (216.239.34.10), ns3.google.com (216.239.36.10), ns4.google.com (216.239.38.10)) give different answers for google.com and www.google.com, depending on query location.from Airtel (Noida, India):$ dig www.google.com @216.239.32.10 +shortwww.l.google.com.209.85.231.104from DreamHost (CA, USA):$ dig www.google.com @216.239.32.10 +shortwww.l.google.com.74.125.19.14774.125.19.9974.125.19.10474.125.19.103see?

 

[genexed]

DNS server caches the nameserver, so when u connect it sees the DNS cache and not any name server directly. You are using Airtel DNS Server so its resolving to Google Indian server because thats how Airtel DNS Server has been configured. Try changing your dns to open dns server and flush dns cache then u will find it will be resolving to ip loacted in US. Or use Airtel DNS Server in US then try to ping it will still resolve to Indian server so your theory of location doesn't really fit in.and for your kind information if a site nameserver ip is changed, most ppl will not be able to see the site till the DNS Propagation (Updation of name server in DNS servers by corresponding ISP) take place.

 

[elepton]

You don't really understand how DNS works, do you? You didn't understand the dig commands above either, did you?

You are using Airtel DNS Server so its resolving to Google Indian server because thats how Airtel DNS Server has been configured.


Airtel DNS servers aren't configured specially for Google. The response for google.com is the same when I query ns1.google.com directly and when I query one of Airtel's servers.

Try changing your dns to open dns server and flush dns cache then u will find it will be resolving to ip loacted in US. Or use Airtel DNS Server in US then try to ping it will still resolve to Indian server so your theory of location doesn't really fit in.


That's exactly my theory of location -- Google serves different records depending on geographical location. It's called GeoDNS and you can read more about it here: https://wiki.mozilla.org/IT/GeoDNS

and for your kind information if a site nameserver ip is changed, most ppl will not be able to see the site till the DNS Propagation (Updation of name server in DNS servers by corresponding ISP) take place.


Depends. admin has a lot of experience with this.