[gentoo-user] Strange issue with YouTube not working at all in some browsers

[gentoo-user] Strange issue with YouTube not working at all in some browsers

[Paul Hartman]

Hi,

For some reason, YouTube doesn't work for me in some web browsers. It
acts like the hostname is not found. When I do host "www.youtube.com"
lookups and tcptraceroute to port 80 and everything else I have tried
to diagnose it seems to work just fine. I'm not using a proxy, I don't
have youtube in my hosts file, and I haven't encountered this problem
with any other website, including all of Google's other sites which I
use frequently. I'm totally baffled.

Loads perfectly fine in:
lynx
links (text and graphical mode)
Opera

Does not load at all in:
Seamonkey
Konqueror
Firefox

I tried it at work from a Windows machine (and a different ISP) using
all of the above browsers and it worked fine. So I have no idea.

I have not tried to do a wireshark capture yet.

Has anyone seen this before or have any hints for me? I'm not a big
YouTube person so I'm more interested in why this is happening than
seeing videos. This has happened in the past with YouTube and after a
few weeks it started working normally again. Not sure how long it has
been since it stopped.

Thanks.

Re: [gentoo-user] Strange issue with YouTube not working at all in some browsers

[Alan McKinnon]

On Saturday 01 August 2009 16:53:08 Paul Hartman wrote:
> Hi,
>
> For some reason, YouTube doesn't work for me in some web browsers. It
> acts like the hostname is not found. When I do host "www.youtube.com"
> lookups and tcptraceroute to port 80 and everything else I have tried
> to diagnose it seems to work just fine. I'm not using a proxy, I don't
> have youtube in my hosts file, and I haven't encountered this problem
> with any other website, including all of Google's other sites which I
> use frequently. I'm totally baffled.
>
> Loads perfectly fine in:
> lynx
> links (text and graphical mode)
> Opera
>
> Does not load at all in:
> Seamonkey
> Konqueror
> Firefox

Those three browsers can all use the same plugins, I'm not sure about the 
first three. I'd be checking for stuff that works like AdBlock. I especially 
know of extensions that block YouTube

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] Strange issue with YouTube not working at all in some browsers

[Paul Hartman]

On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 11:21 AM, Alan McKinnon<alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Saturday 01 August 2009 16:53:08 Paul Hartman wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> For some reason, YouTube doesn't work for me in some web browsers. It
>> acts like the hostname is not found. When I do host "www.youtube.com"
>> lookups and tcptraceroute to port 80 and everything else I have tried
>> to diagnose it seems to work just fine. I'm not using a proxy, I don't
>> have youtube in my hosts file, and I haven't encountered this problem
>> with any other website, including all of Google's other sites which I
>> use frequently. I'm totally baffled.
>>
>> Loads perfectly fine in:
>> lynx
>> links (text and graphical mode)
>> Opera
>>
>> Does not load at all in:
>> Seamonkey
>> Konqueror
>> Firefox
>
> Those three browsers can all use the same plugins, I'm not sure about the
> first three. I'd be checking for stuff that works like AdBlock. I especially
> know of extensions that block YouTube

To add more confusion: I just tried accessing YouTube over Tor from
the very browser in which it refuses to work normally and it loaded
fine. So I am leaning heavily towards this being an ISP issue. The
fact that traceroute shows no errors really makes me wonder if my ISP
(a Cable TV provider) is intentionally blocking YouTube (their
competition?). But only for certain browsers? It doesn't make any
sense.

Following that thought -- I wonder if there is a special YouTube
server for my ISP and the standard/outside YouTube server farm is
blocked? I've read about Google hosting servers at or near major ISPs
to reduce the number of hops, but have never heard anything about my
ISP doing it. I do not use my ISP's DNS servers, so I could very well
be trying access a "different" YouTube. I guess I will have to do some
lookups on their servers and compare the results.

My ISP's DNS servers have 3 strikes against them:

1. It is slow, slow, slow, slow, slow... and did I mention slow? :)
2. They have previously sold user's DNS/browsing history to
advertisers. They claim to have stopped, but...
3. They "hijack" DNS, making every invalid address resolve to an
address anyway, which when viewed in a web browser goes to an "error"
page (full of advertisements and "sponsored links"). You never know if
a hostname is really invalid or not, which makes troubleshooting
non-HTTP connections interesting.

[gentoo-user] Re: Strange issue with YouTube not working at all in some browsers

[Remy Blank]

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Paul Hartman wrote:
> My ISP's DNS servers have 3 strikes against them:
> 
> 1. It is slow, slow, slow, slow, slow... and did I mention slow? :)
> 2. They have previously sold user's DNS/browsing history to
> advertisers. They claim to have stopped, but...
> 3. They "hijack" DNS, making every invalid address resolve to an
> address anyway, which when viewed in a web browser goes to an "error"
> page (full of advertisements and "sponsored links"). You never know if
> a hostname is really invalid or not, which makes troubleshooting
> non-HTTP connections interesting.

Time to switch to http://www.opendns.com/ ?

(I haven't used them, but they seem to be recommended a lot theses days)

-- Remy


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Re: [gentoo-user] Strange issue with YouTube not working at all in some browsers

[Robin Atwood]

On Saturday 01 August 2009, Paul Hartman wrote:
> My ISP's DNS servers have 3 strikes against them:
>
> 1. It is slow, slow, slow, slow, slow... and did I mention slow? :)
> 2. They have previously sold user's DNS/browsing history to
> advertisers. They claim to have stopped, but...
> 3. They "hijack" DNS, making every invalid address resolve to an
> address anyway, which when viewed in a web browser goes to an "error"
> page (full of advertisements and "sponsored links"). You never know if
> a hostname is really invalid or not, which makes troubleshooting
> non-HTTP connections interesting.

http://www.opendns.com is your friend. :) I switched a few months back and not 
regretted it.

HTH
-Robin
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Robin Atwood.

"Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,
 Where there ain't no Ten Commandments an' a man can raise a thirst"
         from "Mandalay" by Rudyard Kipling
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: [gentoo-user] Strange issue with YouTube not working at all in some browsers

[Alan McKinnon]

On Saturday 01 August 2009 18:56:24 Paul Hartman wrote:
> Following that thought -- I wonder if there is a special YouTube
> server for my ISP and the standard/outside YouTube server farm is
> blocked? I've read about Google hosting servers at or near major ISPs
> to reduce the number of hops, but have never heard anything about my
> ISP doing it. I do not use my ISP's DNS servers, so I could very well
> be trying access a "different" YouTube. I guess I will have to do some
> lookups on their servers and compare the results.

That is certainly possible - Google has YouTube caches all over the world. 
It's not inconceivable that tweaks for specific browsers accidentally nuke the 
content.

The test for this would be to try to view videos through a different ISP> Are 
you able to do this?

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Strange issue with YouTube not working at all in some browsers

[Alan McKinnon]

On Saturday 01 August 2009 19:03:49 Remy Blank wrote:
> Paul Hartman wrote:
> > My ISP's DNS servers have 3 strikes against them:
> >
> > 1. It is slow, slow, slow, slow, slow... and did I mention slow? :)
> > 2. They have previously sold user's DNS/browsing history to
> > advertisers. They claim to have stopped, but...
> > 3. They "hijack" DNS, making every invalid address resolve to an
> > address anyway, which when viewed in a web browser goes to an "error"
> > page (full of advertisements and "sponsored links"). You never know if
> > a hostname is really invalid or not, which makes troubleshooting
> > non-HTTP connections interesting.
>
> Time to switch to http://www.opendns.com/ ?
>
> (I haven't used them, but they seem to be recommended a lot theses days)

<side comment>

Paul's post tells us who his ISP probably is :-) What they do makes my blood 
boil - if I tried a stunt like that with my DNS caches, I'd be frog-marched 
out the door with bangles on in about 30 minutes flat.

I'd let you use my cache network with pleasure, but there's ACLs in place. In 
other good news, I've also heard good things about opendns, I recommend Paul 
gives them a try if he can.

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Strange issue with YouTube not working at all in some browsers

[Arttu V.]

On 8/1/09, Remy Blank <remy.blank@pobox.com> wrote:
> Paul Hartman wrote:
>> My ISP's DNS servers have 3 strikes against them:
>>
>> 1. It is slow, slow, slow, slow, slow... and did I mention slow? :)
>> 2. They have previously sold user's DNS/browsing history to
>> advertisers. They claim to have stopped, but...
>> 3. They "hijack" DNS, making every invalid address resolve to an
>> address anyway, which when viewed in a web browser goes to an "error"
>> page (full of advertisements and "sponsored links"). You never know if
>> a hostname is really invalid or not, which makes troubleshooting
>> non-HTTP connections interesting.
>
> Time to switch to http://www.opendns.com/ ?
>
> (I haven't used them, but they seem to be recommended a lot theses days)

Which part of the problems he lists are not associated to OpenDNS as well? :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDNS#Privacy_issues.2C_conflicts_and_covert_redirection

-- 
Arttu V.

Re: [gentoo-user] Strange issue with YouTube not working at all in some browsers

[Dale]

Paul Hartman wrote:
>
>
> My ISP's DNS servers have 3 strikes against them:
>
> 1. It is slow, slow, slow, slow, slow... and did I mention slow? :)
> 2. They have previously sold user's DNS/browsing history to
> advertisers. They claim to have stopped, but...
> 3. They "hijack" DNS, making every invalid address resolve to an
> address anyway, which when viewed in a web browser goes to an "error"
> page (full of advertisements and "sponsored links"). You never know if
> a hostname is really invalid or not, which makes troubleshooting
> non-HTTP connections interesting.
>
>
>   

I got the IP of the youtube I go to.  Maybe try the IP number instead.

http://64.15.120.233/

Hope that helps.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Strange issue with YouTube not working at all in some browsers

[Paul Hartman]

On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 12:03 PM, Remy Blank<remy.blank@pobox.com> wrote:
> Paul Hartman wrote:
>> My ISP's DNS servers have 3 strikes against them:
>>
>> 1. It is slow, slow, slow, slow, slow... and did I mention slow? :)
>> 2. They have previously sold user's DNS/browsing history to
>> advertisers. They claim to have stopped, but...
>> 3. They "hijack" DNS, making every invalid address resolve to an
>> address anyway, which when viewed in a web browser goes to an "error"
>> page (full of advertisements and "sponsored links"). You never know if
>> a hostname is really invalid or not, which makes troubleshooting
>> non-HTTP connections interesting.
>
> Time to switch to http://www.opendns.com/ ?
>
> (I haven't used them, but they seem to be recommended a lot theses days)

I'm already not using my ISP's DNS server. I was just outlining my
reasons for that (in case the fact that I don't use theirs is causing
my problem). :)

Re: [gentoo-user] Strange issue with YouTube not working at all in some browsers

[Paul Hartman]

On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 12:46 PM, Dale<rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:
> Paul Hartman wrote:
>>
>>
>> My ISP's DNS servers have 3 strikes against them:
>>
>> 1. It is slow, slow, slow, slow, slow... and did I mention slow? :)
>> 2. They have previously sold user's DNS/browsing history to
>> advertisers. They claim to have stopped, but...
>> 3. They "hijack" DNS, making every invalid address resolve to an
>> address anyway, which when viewed in a web browser goes to an "error"
>> page (full of advertisements and "sponsored links"). You never know if
>> a hostname is really invalid or not, which makes troubleshooting
>> non-HTTP connections interesting.
>>
>>
>>
>
> I got the IP of the youtube I go to.  Maybe try the IP number instead.
>
> http://64.15.120.233/
>
> Hope that helps.

That actually worked, sort of. The site and images all load using that
IP but videos are apparently served by another host because they get
stuck on the "loading" animation forever. I found a couple other
YouTube IPs on Google which also work:

http://208.65.153.238/
http://208.117.236.69/

These are the IPs I got for www.youtube.com:
youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 72.14.213.100
youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 72.14.213.101
youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 72.14.213.102
youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 72.14.213.113
youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 72.14.213.138
youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 72.14.213.139

So at least I'm getting a little closer. Going to try to find my ISP's
DNS servers and perform the lookups on them to see what the difference
is.

Thanks,
Paul

Re: [gentoo-user] Strange issue with YouTube not working at all in some browsers

[Paul Hartman]

On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 1:09 PM, Paul
Hartman<paul.hartman+gentoo@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 12:46 PM, Dale<rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Paul Hartman wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> My ISP's DNS servers have 3 strikes against them:
>>>
>>> 1. It is slow, slow, slow, slow, slow... and did I mention slow? :)
>>> 2. They have previously sold user's DNS/browsing history to
>>> advertisers. They claim to have stopped, but...
>>> 3. They "hijack" DNS, making every invalid address resolve to an
>>> address anyway, which when viewed in a web browser goes to an "error"
>>> page (full of advertisements and "sponsored links"). You never know if
>>> a hostname is really invalid or not, which makes troubleshooting
>>> non-HTTP connections interesting.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I got the IP of the youtube I go to.  Maybe try the IP number instead.
>>
>> http://64.15.120.233/
>>
>> Hope that helps.
>
> That actually worked, sort of. The site and images all load using that
> IP but videos are apparently served by another host because they get
> stuck on the "loading" animation forever. I found a couple other
> YouTube IPs on Google which also work:
>
> http://208.65.153.238/
> http://208.117.236.69/
>
> These are the IPs I got for www.youtube.com:
> youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 72.14.213.100
> youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 72.14.213.101
> youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 72.14.213.102
> youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 72.14.213.113
> youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 72.14.213.138
> youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 72.14.213.139
>
> So at least I'm getting a little closer. Going to try to find my ISP's
> DNS servers and perform the lookups on them to see what the difference
> is.
>
> Thanks,
> Paul
>

I believe I've solved it. I was using the level3 DNS servers (4.2.2.x)
which return a different Youtube address than the other open DNS
servers or running my own DNS server locally. So my guess is that
maybe level3 (GTE, Verizon, whoever it actually is) has one of those
special Google servers over on their network. Getting rid of those DNS
servers has resolved the problem. Youtube is working normally again.
Thanks all for the help.