Unreachable sites.

[MrZipf2]

We see a number of sites blocked / dropped by BT that shouldn't be. These sites are accessible over VPN and over 4G. The issue repro's on all major platforms here (Android, Linux, Mac OS 10.x, Windows 10). Either BT does not have a route to them or some middle box is filtering them out.

Example sites include https://goo.gl/ and https://quizlet.com/. Our family share photos from Google photos which uses the goo.gl service and our son has school exercises to complete quizlet.com.

The two examples resolve in DNS, but but appear to get dropped in BT's network.

> nslookup goo.gl
Server: BThomehub.home
Address: 192.168.1.254

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: goo.gl
Address: 81.139.58.97

> tracert -d 81.139.58.97

Tracing route to 81.139.58.97 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.254
2 6 ms 6 ms 6 ms 217.32.145.0
3 7 ms 5 ms 6 ms 217.32.145.46
4 11 ms 10 ms 10 ms 212.140.235.138
5 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 217.41.169.243
6 11 ms 11 ms 13 ms 213.120.179.83
7 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 109.159.251.195
8 17 ms 18 ms 18 ms 109.159.251.137
9 16 ms 16 ms 16 ms 195.99.127.63
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.

> nslookup 195.99.127.63
Server: BThomehub.home
Address: 192.168.1.254

Name: core1-hu0-1-0-0.southbank.ukcore.bt.net
Address: 195.99.127.63

Is there anyone from BT who can take a look? [ I tried calling today but was told the telephone team only did broadband line checks and there was no network support team anywhere within BT. Plainly not an issue with our line or router ].

Thanks

[MrZipf2]

And here's the second site appearing to stop dead in the BT network:

> tracert -d quizlet.com

Tracing route to quizlet.com [81.139.58.97]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.254
2 6 ms 6 ms 5 ms 217.32.145.0
3 5 ms 6 ms 6 ms 217.32.145.46
4 11 ms 10 ms 10 ms 212.140.235.138
5 11 ms 10 ms 11 ms 217.41.169.243
6 11 ms 10 ms 10 ms 213.120.179.83
7 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 109.159.251.195
8 18 ms 19 ms 17 ms 109.159.251.137
9 16 ms 16 ms 16 ms 195.99.127.63
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * ^C

I know some routers/hosts drop ICMP requests, but see responses to related sites, ie google.com responds though it takes a different route, but again it's host core1-hu0-1-0-0.southbank.ukcore.bt.net where the route appears to stop dead.

[smf22]

Perhaps it's a temporary issue. I can access both sites OK over BT broadband on IPv4 and goo.gl via both IPv4 and IPv6.

Regards

[MrZipf2]

Thanks for the info and the suggestion - it's been an issue for at least 3 weeks. The quizlet site is noticeable as that's where our son is failing to do his Spanish homework.

Does your IPv4 route go via core1-hu0-1-0-0.southbank.ukcore.bt.net?

[smf22]

Via Telehouse rather than Southbank. Hop 7 (195.99.126.1) doesn't resolve, but is the last BT hop.

smf22@lampu:~$ traceroute -n quizlet.com
traceroute to quizlet.com (104.16.15.221), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1 192.168.1.254 (192.168.1.254) 0.630 ms 0.619 ms 0.660 ms
 2 * * *
 3 * * *
 4 31.55.186.184 (31.55.186.184) 10.056 ms 10.049 ms 9.034 ms
 5 195.99.127.104 (195.99.127.104) 8.802 ms 8.794 ms 195.99.127.98 (195.99.127.98) 9.011 ms
 6 peer5-hu0-18-0-1.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net (213.121.193.169) 10.474 ms 213.121.193.195 (213.121.193.195) 9.480 ms peer1-xe0-0-2.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (213.121.193.185) 9.420 ms
 7 195.99.126.1 (195.99.126.1) 9.395 ms 9.431 ms 11.058 ms
 8 104.16.15.221 (104.16.15.221) 9.614 ms 9.660 ms 9.544 ms

smf22@lampu:~$ whois 195.99.126.1
% This is the RIPE Database query service.
% The objects are in RPSL format.
%
[snip]
% Information related to '195.99.125.0 - 195.99.127.255'
% Abuse contact for '195.99.125.0 - 195.99.127.255' is 'abuse@bt.com'

inetnum: 195.99.125.0 - 195.99.127.255
netname: BT-UKIP-IPV4-INFRASTRUCTURE
descr: Core PoPs
country: GB
[snip]

[MrZipf2]

Thanks! Appreciated.

[MrZipf2]

Rats! For at least a month, our podcast apps have been broken. These have been running on Android where I don't have any diagnostic foo. Today, I just realized it's exactly the same problem:

> tracert feeds.feedburner.com

Tracing route to feeds.feedburner.com [81.139.58.97]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms BThomehub.home [192.168.1.254]
2 5 ms 5 ms 6 ms 217.32.145.0
3 106 ms 7 ms 6 ms 217.32.145.46
4 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 212.140.235.138
5 11 ms 10 ms 10 ms 217.41.169.243
6 11 ms 10 ms 10 ms 213.120.179.83
7 54 ms 9 ms 10 ms acc2-xe-1-2-0.sf.21cn-ipp.bt.net [109.159.251.195]
8 19 ms 18 ms 18 ms core1-te0-13-0-2.ilford.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.251.137]
9 16 ms 16 ms 16 ms core1-hu0-1-0-0.southbank.ukcore.bt.net [195.99.127.63]
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * *

Switch to 4G and enable feed fetching and there's no problem. But this isn't a solution to the problem as most devices in the home don't have 4G and we pay BT to provide networking. This issue is presumably affecting a significant number of BT FTTP customers who are on similar infrastructure.

I had two conversations with BT's Broadband support yesterday. It was depressing. "We only handle broadband faults and have no way to escalate an issue like this. You should start paying for a BT Tech Expert to help you".  In a company the size of BT, I do appreciate it's hard to know where to find teams, but BT Broadband support wouldn't even start. Completely disempowered and disinterested in 2016.

[smf22]

In the absence of any better ideas, perhaps the problem is with the public IP address and path you're currently using. If you disconnect and reconnect your Broadband you should get a different public IP address and may see different results.

If you do this check the IP address on the Hub (or router) first, leave it disconnected 5-10 minutes and check the IP address after reconnecting to make sure it's different.

Regards

[MrZipf2]

Thanks smf22, appreciate the idea, but it'd still be broken for others and we sit in an assigned block that looks suspiciously unlikely to change:

host86-171-XXX-YYY.range86-171.btcentralplus.com

86.171.XXX.YYY

[smf22]

Just reading back through the previous posts.... have you copied/pasted the output from the nslookup and tracert directly from the client?

I notice the IP address from the nslookup for the goo.gl and the tracert to quizlet.com is using the address 81.139.58.97. That address is part of a BT assigned address range.

When I check against those names I get completely different IP address:

smf22@lampu:~$ nslookup goo.gl
Server:         8.8.4.4
Address:        8.8.4.4#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   goo.gl
Address: 172.217.17.46

smf22@lampu:~$ nslookup quizlet.com
Server:         8.8.4.4
Address:        8.8.4.4#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   quizlet.com
Address: 104.16.16.221
Name:   quizlet.com
Address: 104.16.15.221
Name:   quizlet.com
Address: 104.16.14.221
Name:   quizlet.com
Address: 104.16.17.221
Name:   quizlet.com
Address: 104.16.18.221

Regards