DNS Server Outage - Solution?
 

Arrgh, Comcast broadband was out of service for the longest period I have ever experienced. Service was out Fri morning when I left for work, Fri eve when I returned home, and part of Sat morning. Previously the longest outage I'd ever had was a few hours, maybe once a year.

Apparently it was a DNS server problem. Some research shows Comcast has had prior spates of DNS problems. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,100960,00.html

Alas, I don't remember the numeric IP of any websites.

Perhaps the answer is to bookmark the numeric IP of Google. 216.239.51.99 And use Google to get to whereever you're going.

Will that work, next time Comcast has a DNS server problem?

Not sure how you are configured, but you could always point your machine at different DNS servers manually. The ip configuration in XP allows you to have a dynamic address and a manually configured DNS entry.

Won't work. Google will try and resolve to google.com on the first search. Try and use ATTs DNS servers - 4.2.2.2 4.2.2.1.

So simply type 4.2.2.2 and/or 4.2.2.1 into the DNS server box in my network prefs?

Edit: Just did so, seems to work. Mac OS X 10.5

A lot of bad/slow ISP service is nothing more than crappy DNS.

You could run a cache-only DNS server at home/work and use that. Or use one of the many many servers out there. Heck, I've got a DNS server running (authoritive for my stuff, caching for everything else) that you can use if you'd like.

67.18.176.153 and 69.56.173.192