Potential DNS issue

[A-Curious-Mouse]

Hi,

When I try to go to openai.com Firefox reports that:

"Hmm. We’re having trouble finding that site.
We can’t connect to the server at openai.com."

nslookup says:
*** UnKnown can't find openai.com: Non-existent domain

If I try from my phone on another ISP the website works fine.

I called BT but they were unable to help because I don't use the BT Hub but a Draytex modem using PPoE and DHCP connected to a router, so obviously they can't follow their script to reboot the Hub because I don't have one.

So my question is are other BT users able to resolve the openai.com DNS name or is this just a problem related to my line/area?

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help.

[A-Curious-Mouse]

So I just modified my routers DHCP server to use an alternative DNS server (cloudflare) 1.1.1.1 and I can now resolve openai.com fine.

So it's 100% an issue with BT's DNS servers in my area.
I can live with using an external DNS provider for now, but hopefully BT's DNS will be fixed soon?

[pippincp · Accepted solution]

If you can't access it via BT DNS then it is safe to assume webprotect is turned on in your account. By using an alternative DNS you bypass webprotect. You could have just turned off webprotect via MyBT.

[A-Curious-Mouse]

You know I was about to refute this (I tend to avoid ISP freebe security tools as I have my own) and I could have sworn I switched it off ages ago.

But thought I better check, and you know what? Web protect is on!

Gah.

It still shouldn't be blocking openai.com though as I'm pretty sure it's not a malicious website...

I will disable webprotect, go back to BT's DNS servers and let you know how I get on.

Is webprotect worth it in terms of an additional layer of security? So far this is the only issue I've ever had with it, and whilst I'm confident the PC is well protected with antimalware, I have an Android tablet that would probably be better off with web protect on as it has no protection other than being behind the NAT router?

And also shouldn't web protect just be redirecting me to a warning page or something rather than giving the impression the website was down or that DNS failed?

EDIT

I just turned off web protect, it asked me if I was sure I wanted to switch it off, to which I clicked yes, and then a green banner appeared at the top of page which says:

"Your BT Web Protect will be turned on within the next 2 hours. Please check back soon."

I think they mean turned OFF? I double checked and tried to switch it off again but the same message appears.

openai.com is still blocked when using BT's DNS servers, but I assume I won't be certain for at least 2 hours.

[NeilO]

Hi @A-Curious-Mouse Thanks for your posts, did disable web protect sort that for you?

If web protect is enabled and you're trying to view a restricted https:// site the screen will be blank and there won't be a warning page but on a http:// site you will see a warning. 

Thanks

Neil

[A-Curious-Mouse]

Hi @NeilO 

>>did disable web protect sort that for you?

Yes it did.

>>If web protect is enabled and you're trying to view a restricted https:// site the screen will be blank and >>there won't be a warning page but on a http:// site you will see a warning. 

That makes sense now. I tell my browser to force https:// on http:// conections; so I never got to see the warning even though the openai.com website supports both SSL and unencrypted connections.

Not sure why BT Web Protect has blacklisted openai.com though? Perhaps it's protecting me from the Terminators and Robot overlords that will be invented there in the near future! 😉

[NeilO]

Hi @A-Curious-Mouse I'm glad that worked for you.

I'm not sure why it's being blocked but if you think a site should be added or removed from the list of those categorised as potentially harmful, you can contact us at saferbrowsing@bt.com providing the details of the site you believe is being incorrectly categorised and we'll send this to our third-party supplier for further investigation.

Thanks

Neil