ANSWERED Cannot resolve host address… authoritative name server error

[sooprtruffaut 5]

I'm using a raspberry pi as a vpn gateway, working with the standard Raspian distro. The connection can be temperamental. Sometimes it will connect and stay connected for hours, although other times I receive this error when when I use the tail command to check things out:

Cannot resolve host address: asia.vpn.airdns.org: [TRY_AGAIN] A temporary error occurred on an authoritative name server. 

This can sometimes occur for days on end, although when I try connecting from my mac the connection is usually much more consistent and stable.

 

I'm new to openvpn so if you have any suggestions could you also tell me what arguments I'll need to input on the command line; I'm using a headless raspberry pi.

 

Thanks for you help!

[Staff 10118]

Hello,

 

can you tell us which DNS the Raspberry PI queries to resolve names?

 

Kind regards

[sooprtruffaut 5]

  On 1/2/2014 at 1:16 PM, Staff said:

Hello,

 

can you tell us which DNS the Raspberry PI queries to resolve names?

 

Kind regards

I've tried a number of different sites, notably Google's DNS servers and this one here http://censurfridns.dk. Can you recommend any DNS suppliers that work a little better with AirVPN?

 

Also, this may sound like a real noob question, but I have the DNS set in the static ip address config, is this the correct place to put this info and if not, where should I be designating it?

 

Thanks for your reply!

[sooprtruffaut 5]

I tried it with a number of different DNS suppliers including Google and a few others but all of them leave me with the same problem. Can you recommend a stable DNS for me?

[Staff 10118]

  On 1/2/2014 at 2:27 PM, sooprtruffaut said:

 

  On 1/2/2014 at 1:16 PM, Staff said:

Hello,

 

can you tell us which DNS the Raspberry PI queries to resolve names?

 

Kind regards

I've tried a number of different sites, notably Google's DNS servers and this one here http://censurfridns.dk. Can you recommend any DNS suppliers that work a little better with AirVPN?

 

Also, this may sound like a real noob question, but I have the DNS set in the static ip address config, is this the correct place to put this info and if not, where should I be designating it?

 

Thanks for your reply!

 

Hello,

 

Google DNS (as well as OpenNIC and any other public DNS we have tested) have no problems in resolving our names and this suggests that your ISP is hijacking DNS queries (please see below). For example:

 

 

 

dig @8.8.8.8 asia.vpn.airdns.org

; <<>> DiG 9.8.4-rpz2+rl005.12-P1 <<>> @8.8.8.8 asia.vpn.airdns.org
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 52404
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;asia.vpn.airdns.org.        IN    A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
asia.vpn.airdns.org.    300    IN    A    119.81.1.125

;; Query time: 647 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Fri Jan  3 02:09:04 2014
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 53
 

 

 

It might be that your DNS queries are hijacked in any case REGARDLESS of the DNS server you try to reach. This occurs with some ISPs around the world (for example Vodafone) AND it might occur with several ISPs in China. In this case, please do not use names at all. Insert directly the entry-IP address of the server you wish to connect to. For example, instead of asia.vpn.airdns.org, insert the entry-IP address of one of the Singapore servers.

 

Kind regards

[sooprtruffaut 5]

That's fantastic, it appears to have worked very well. I will report back and post how stable the connection remains over the day, if it stays consistent that will be the problem well and truly solved.

 

Thanks very much for you help!

[sooprtruffaut 5]

Yeah, that appears to have solved the issues, it feels a lot more stable now. Thanks for your assistance!