The Lemon Fool

For at least a couple of days, I've been unable to connect to bankofengland.co.uk - any part of it. I get the error DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN . I've tried nslookup bankofengland.co.uk, which times out without resolving the name, and nslookup bankofengland.co.uk 8.8.8.8 (which means "use the Google name server to resolve it) gives me an IP address - 20.90.224.116 - but I still get the error if I replace bankofengland.co.uk with that in the browser. It also doesn't help if I hard-code it into my hosts file (this is Windows 11). The "is it just me?" websites say no, "it's working fine, and therefore it is just me".

I think it must be my ISP and their nameserver, but since it's lasted a couple of days, it's not just a matter of a slow update. Does anyone else get problems trying to use pages like https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/ ? Can anyone think of a workaround? The ISP (Shell Energy Broadband, now owned by Octopus Energy) is cheap but not great on customer service (and I believe their technical stuff is done by TalkTalk anyway), so I dread endless conversations with them on how to fix one particular, not big, problem (I had been using the BoE for official exchange rates).

It works fine for me. Not that I have any need of it.

EthicsGradient wrote:I think it must be my ISP and their nameserver, but since it's lasted a couple of days, it's not just a matter of a slow update. Does anyone else get problems trying to use pages like https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/ ? Can anyone think of a workaround?

Use the IP you found for The BoE in your browser as a temporary measure?

EthicsGradient wrote:The ISP (Shell Energy Broadband, now owned by Octopus Energy) is cheap but not great on customer service (and I believe their technical stuff is done by TalkTalk anyway), so I dread endless conversations with them on how to fix one particular, not big, problem (I had been using the BoE for official exchange rates).

Do they not have an online forum for reports and queries? This is usually the best method to use with ISPs. They might already know about it.

If you want to try some DIY you could look here: https://kinsta.com/knowledgebase/dns_probe_finished_nxdomain/

But, if it is your ISP's DNS (sounds like it), it won't work - unless you can change your router's settings to use someone else's DNS.

XFool wrote:

EthicsGradient wrote:I think it must be my ISP and their nameserver, but since it's lasted a couple of days, it's not just a matter of a slow update. Does anyone else get problems trying to use pages like https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/ ? Can anyone think of a workaround?

Use the IP you found for The BoE in your browser as a temporary measure?

No, with that, something in the process tries to recast that as "bankofengland.co.uk" and I get the same error.

EthicsGradient wrote:The ISP (Shell Energy Broadband, now owned by Octopus Energy) is cheap but not great on customer service (and I believe their technical stuff is done by TalkTalk anyway), so I dread endless conversations with them on how to fix one particular, not big, problem (I had been using the BoE for official exchange rates).

Do they not have an online forum for reports and queries?

No, part of them being cheap was a lack of useful tools, and renewing my contract last year was so painful, dealing with clueless helplines - just to keep the same deal - that I resolved not to stay with them when this contract runs out. Whether Octopus will make it any better, I can't tell.

EthicsGradient wrote:

XFool wrote:Use the IP you found for The BoE in your browser as a temporary measure?

No, with that, something in the process tries to recast that as "bankofengland.co.uk" and I get the same error.

Browsers also have their own DNS caches, google for flush chrome dns or flush firefox dns or the same for your browser.

Did you ipconfig /flushdns after putting the entry into your hosts file?

Maybe try using a different browser? Wen I encounter errors with websites, that is generalaly my first step - in case it is a cookies or caching issue. It's easier to do this than deleting cookies/clearing cache.

mc2fool wrote:

EthicsGradient wrote:No, with that, something in the process tries to recast that as "bankofengland.co.uk" and I get the same error.

Browsers also have their own DNS caches, google for flush chrome dns or flush firefox dns or the same for your browser.

Did you ipconfig /flushdns after putting the entry into your hosts file?

Well, I rebooted both my PC and router before trying again, and it didn't help. But I have now looked up the equivalent for an Edge browser (put "edge://net-internals/#dns" in the URL box, and then click "Clear host cache" button). There wasn't any feedback, so then I put "www.bankofengland.co.uk" into the "domain lookup" box also on that page and ... it crashed the Edge browser.

OK, I'll try another browser - just have, and Firefox gets the same error.

It's a little strange that you are still getting DNS failures after putting it into your hosts file (and still after rebooting -- but try ipconfig /flushdns anyway!), so I'm wondering if you did that correctly.

Have you tried just changing your DNS provider to, say, 8.8.8.8, either in Windows or on your router?

mc2fool wrote:It's a little strange that you are still getting DNS failures after putting it into your hosts file (and still after rebooting -- but try ipconfig /flushdns anyway!), so I'm wondering if you did that correctly.

Have you tried just changing your DNS provider to, say, 8.8.8.8, either in Windows or on your router?

ipconfig /flushdns made no difference.

I have eventually found where to change the DNS in the router (they really hide away the ability to change it) and that has fixed it. It's not a solution I like, however - too easy to forget it's there, and then some other problem comes up because of it. It may not survive a reboot of the router, of course. I've recorded the old values, anyway.

From a privacy perspective it's better to use non ISP third party DNS any way - which one is a matter of preference.

https://www.lifewire.com/free-and-publi ... rs-2626062

EthicsGradient wrote:I have eventually found where to change the DNS in the router (they really hide away the ability to change it) and that has fixed it. It's not a solution I like, however - too easy to forget it's there, and then some other problem comes up because of it. It may not survive a reboot of the router, of course. I've recorded the old values, anyway.

In my view, it's more likely you'll have problems caused by your ISP's DNS (as you have already found), than by using a public DNS like Google or OpenDNS

EthicsGradient wrote:I think it must be my ISP and their nameserver, but since it's lasted a couple of days, it's not just a matter of a slow update. Does anyone else get problems trying to use pages like https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/ ? Can anyone think of a workaround?

When I very occasionally have some websites that the browser won't connect to (on my work PC, and for reasons that are not clear to me), I use an online proxy web service or Opera with it's built in VPN.

torata

A third-party DNS (such as google's) has already been suggested. Probably best for most cases, including those where you're up against the Great Firewall operated by many ISPs (which notionally blocks "bad" sites - but "they would say that").

The other option is to run your own DNS server. That would then start with the root servers, and cache results for you - which may in some cases speed things up.