Weird website browsing problem

[steve23094]

Running the latest version of Merlin.

I have a really weird problem with the website Arstechnica.

On my iPhone, iMac or iPad (so both iOS and OS X) every time I navigate to Arstechnica.com for the first time in a little while I have to load the site twice. It starts to load and then freezes with nothing on screen, if I load it again it pops up fine. This happens if I am navigating there from Feedly, a bookmark or typing the address into my browser.

This keeps reoccurring but I haven't observed a fixed length of time between faults. Perhaps it's somehow related to a cache?

I have only witnessed this on Arstechnica.

So I don't know if the fault lies with my devices, router, ISP or Arstechnica. Nor do I have any idea how to begin diagnosing the fault. Can you help?

 

[L&LD]

I notice this behavior on the Lenovo site too when I want to customize a new notebook or download drivers for a specific model.

Windows 8.1 x64 Pro, IE.

I would guess the website is coded faulty.

 

[RMerlin]

Could be a DNS or a CDN issue.

 

[Nullity]

Running the latest version of Merlin.

I have a really weird problem with the website Arstechnica.

On my iPhone, iMac or iPad (so both iOS and OS X) every time I navigate to Arstechnica.com for the first time in a little while I have to load the site twice. It starts to load and then freezes with nothing on screen, if I load it again it pops up fine. This happens if I am navigating there from Feedly, a bookmark or typing the address into my browser.

This keeps reoccurring but I haven't observed a fixed length of time between faults. Perhaps it's somehow related to a cache?

I have only witnessed this on Arstechnica.

So I don't know if the fault lies with my devices, router, ISP or Arstechnica. Nor do I have any idea how to begin diagnosing the fault. Can you help?

I experienced something similar (except I use pfSense as my router) a couple of days ago. Normal access returned after the snow-fall subsided (SEast USA), so I assume it was weather-related down-time.

To check if it is a problem on your end you can use sites like isitup.org or downforeveryoneorjustme.com. You can also use a proxy (by Googling "proxy") and see if the sites works that way.

Diagnosing the problem further can be done with commands like nslookup, traceroute, and ping.

 

[L&LD]

In my case, this isn't a one time or limited period deal.

It happens to those sites with anything I connect with.

 

[Nullity]

In my case, this isn't a one time or limited period deal.

It happens to those sites with anything I connect with.

Have you tried running tcpdump? Even if you are a networking noob (me), it is reasonably easy to catch misconfigurations. The tcpdump manpage is a great source of information.

Tip: To keep tcpdump from crashing on my RT-N66U I needed to disable hardware accelleration.

 

[L&LD]

There is no misconfiguration on my end if every other site is working properly.

The Lenovo website and the OP's website have an issue they need to fix for the world.

 

[steve23094]

Could be a DNS or a CDN issue.

Hmmm... that's got me thinking. Is this a possibility?

1. I have primary and secondary DNS servers set as my ISP's (both different).

2. Accessing Arstechnica for the first time attempts primary DNS, can't resolve because there is a problem on their end.

3. Succeeds the second time I access because it uses the secondary DNS and this is set correctly.

4. Works for a while until my router flushes the local DNS cache.

5. Back to 2.

What do you think?

 

[Nullity]

There is no misconfiguration on my end if every other site is working properly.

The Lenovo website and the OP's website have an issue they need to fix for the world.

Both sites work fine for me with my not-so-great connection. (Just sharing as a data point.) My ISP is http://bgp.he.net/AS7029


Regardless of where the misconfiguration is, almost everytime I run a good packet sniffer like tcpdump I learn something new about my network and/or networking in general. Well, most of the time... sometimes I just get really confused.

 

[Nullity]

Hmmm... that's got me thinking. Is this a possibility?

1. I have primary and secondary DNS servers set as my ISP's (both different).

2. Accessing Arstechnica for the first time attempts primary DNS, can't resolve because there is a problem on their end.

3. Succeeds the second time I access because it uses the secondary DNS and this is set correctly.

4. Works for a while until my router flushes the local DNS cache.

5. Back to 2.

What do you think?

Seems plausible but without proof it is just conjecture. Use some of the tools I mentioned in my earlier post to confirm your suspicions.

 

[steve23094]

Seems plausible but without proof it is just conjecture. Use some of the tools I mentioned in my earlier post to confirm your suspicions.

Do you mean tcpdump? Because I looked at the homepage and it's probably not going to fly.

Admittedly I skim read but it looks like I have to compile it and I have never done a compile before. I looked at the switches page and it's huge, probably too complicated for me.

Would using Console work, or does that not provide enough detail? If all I'm looking for is a DNS resolve failure is there a simpler and easier to use App?

 

[Nullity]

Do you mean tcpdump? Because I looked at the homepage and it's probably not going to fly.

Admittedly I skim read but it looks like I have to compile it and I have never done a compile before. I looked at the switches page and it's huge, probably too complicated for me.

Would using Console work, or does that not provide enough detail? If all I'm looking for is a DNS resolve failure is there a simpler and easier to use App?

No, I meant nslookup, traceroute (tracert on Windows?), and ping. All those programs should be on Windows. You can use nslookup to do some rudimentary DNS trouble-shooting.

Tcpdump is complex, no doubt. There are some good tutorials out there that explain it's usage more intuitively. Lol, the manpage will say things like "I will the rest unexplained as an exercise for the user"... wtf?

 

[RMerlin]

Simplest way to test is to change the router's DNS to 4.2.2.2/8.8.8.8 and see what happens.

 

[L&LD]

Simplest way to test is to change the router's DNS to 4.2.2.2/8.8.8.8 and see what happens.

At least in my case, those are the DNS servers I use.

 

[steve23094]

Just a follow up. This has resolved itself without me changing anything.

I can only guess that it was a screw up with routing on my ISP's end (Virgin Media).