Lose your Time Warner Internet connection (again)? You could try Open DNS

If you live in Greater Los Angeles and are fed up with Time Warner Cable, there's probably not much you can do about it (unless you're the L.A. city attorney, in which case you can sue). The frequent outages, slow customer service and small number of high-definition channels are a fact of life. But the next time your Time Warner Internet goes down, wait a moment before you shout expletives at your modem. There may be a solution, albeit an unauthorized one.

This week, when an outage prevented some L.A. customers (Time Warner told NBC News it was 1.2 million but told us it was a "small number") from accessing the Internet, a few sages on Twitter suggested checking out OpenDNS. The San Francisco company is a DNS provider, which means that when Time Warner's DNS server is down, Open DNS can help you access the Internet.

Here's how it works: DNS servers convert IP addresses (those numbers formatted something like 123.456.78.90) into domain names. They are basically the "directory assistance" of the Internet, according to Allison Rhodes, a spokeswoman for OpenDNS. Time Warner and other ...

... cable companies provide DNS servers for users, but the service is separate from the Internet connection itself. When a DNS server goes down, customers can't get to the Web pages they're seeking.

That's where OpenDNS comes in -- it provides its own DNS servers. So if Time Warner's DNS server is down, you can change your computer setting to use OpenDNS to convert IP addresses into domain names. (Your computer will remember the change and stick with OpenDNS until you tell it not to.) Rhodes says OpenDNS will make your Internet faster and has anti-phishing devices and free parental controls.

Of course, if your Internet is down, you probably can't access the OpenDNS website to find out how to make the switch. Rhodes recommends saving the directions to your computer because you can still convert to OpenDNS when your Internet is down (find directions here).

If you missed the outage this time, don't worry about it: A Time Warner spokesman said that everything is back up and running for its customers. But for at least a few of them, that may not be because of anything Time Warner did. Said Rhodes, "Every time there is an outage, we see an influx of new users."

-- Alana Semuels

Comments

[Todd]

interesting. somebody commented on my blog and suggested this too.

[Jim]

Alana, this sounds like great info. but what is the cost if you sign up for this link, and your instructions are not very clear on how to sign up and what addresses you use. Can you clear this up so those of us that are not real computer experts can understand it. I am sure like any others we would all like to get rid of Time Warner and find some other way to get on the internet that is as quick but more reliable.
thanks

[H Simpson]

This problem has been going on for some time, and in the last few days particularly. Check this very active user forum post, over 30 pages, and click to the end (most recent) for the last few days' postings. Using an alternate, free DNS server, as described both here and by users on that forum, has been a lifesaver.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20875802-Re-What-the-heck-is-going-on-in-SoCal

[Steve]

Jim -

You can use OpenDNS without creating an account.

Work your way through the step by step instructions that you find at the website and you will be good to go in minutes.

:-)

[Art]

Maybe there should be a class-action suit againt TW to force it to refund for the time(s) that its "service" is unavailable.

[Preston Lewis]

OpenDNS is free. You only have to create an account if you want to use OpenDNS' filtering, anti-phishing, etc. You can even block countries, like China if you know how to do it (I block China since most nasty stuff I get tends to link to a Chinese IP address). An alternative that seems to always work in Level3's DNS free service at 4.2.2.1 That one is easy to remember.

[Matt]

Time Warner Business Class service is still down, and is not related to DNS. We currently use OpenDNS, but it appears that it's Time Warner's backbone that is the problem. It's now getting close to a week long outage.. I'm curious if the service will be pro-rated on our bill.

[Craig Mathias]

We're in Chatsworth... our entire city has been down since 12/13 and as of 12/16, still not back up. We're going to ATT. Our business is too valuable to trust to Time Warner's mess any more.

[Anthony]

People are really overestimating the OpenDNS fix. OpenDNS is great, but it's only going to help when Time Warner's DNS servers are down or very slow.

But most of Time Warner's problems in LA relate to highly congested, poorly managed routers. This slows (or sometimes stops) ALL traffic, not just DNS queries.

So sure, OpenDNS will eliminate one possible issue, but most of the problems are going to continue until Time Warner learns to properly provision and manage a broadband network. Don't hold your breath. If you can get Verizon FIOS, do it.

[Anthony]

Also, next time you're having problems with your TW connection, do a "traceroute" - and save the results. If you don't know what they are, learn about them - they are geeky as heck, but will really help you see where the issue is. Send the traceroutes (via e-mail) to TW support so that they are on file. Participate in online discussions about the issue (such as that very comprehensive DSLReports thread, which someone linked to above) and post some traceroutes there, too, if they allow it. I have several months history of nasty traceroutes and maybe a total of $20 in statement credit to show for all the grief. Oooh, TW, you big spenders!

TW will email you back with nothing except a "please call us", which of course defeats the purpose of email support, but you're not gonna call because you know better (due to reading this). Because if you do call, they'll just blame you, your computer, your dog, your ex, or try to get you to do dumb irrelevant things like make sure your computer is plugged in, reset your modem, clear your browser cache while dancing on one leg - they'll even send a poor sucker tech out to your house (between 10am and 4pm) to pretend he found a problem and fixed it ("ahhh here it is - wow, you had a TERRIBLE b-2123423 inbound line level. no WONDER you had all this trouble. Well, I put in a special k-RAD magic good-thing booster. all better. sign here. bye!")

Anything to avoid the core issue of one of the most poorly managed networks in America. Trust me - I live in Venice and have been through it with them on and off for a year (the worst has been the last couple of months). And my background is in tech - so I really feel for people who simply want it to work and don't want to peek under the covers (it's a mess under there, kids, DON'T LOOOOOK!)

[Paul Barker]

In the article, it says: "Here's how it works: DNS servers convert IP addresses (those numbers formatted something like 123.456.78.90) into domain names."
The example number given is actually an invalid IP address. The valid range for each number is between 0 and 255. So, 123.156.78.90 would be a valid number, but the computer wouldn't know what to do with the 456, and would return an error. I know you're just trying to give a rough idea, but that is a technical inaccuracy worse than the typical spelling or grammatical error, so I thought I'd point it out.

[Anthony]

Good point, Paul, above - and now that you mention it, the article has it backwards. DNS servers (in this context) do the converse: they convert domain names into IP addresses.

[SuperPete]

So how is Verizon better? FIOS for that matter.