Tohir Solomons

Vodacom and Rotten DNS, Connected but not quite connected

Posted on the May 3rd, 2010 under Internet by Tohir

One of the most annoying issues using Vodacom to connect to the internet is that sometimes the DNS server used is so badly rotten, internet use is practically useless.

DNS is the system that converts a domain example www.google.com to an IP Address, something ‘computers’ can interpret and understand. When this process fails, it may appear the internet is down. All that is happening, however, is that the process of converting domain names to IP Addresses is slow (or dead).

One way to fix this is to use alternative DNS servers/addresses. By switching DNS addresses, you are basically saying, use this server to convert domains to IP addresses.

First things to check:

1. You have an internet connection. This will not help if you do have one
2. Check that entering an IP address works, example: http://41.1.224.101

• http://41.1.224.101 (vodacom.co.za)
• http://41.203.21.136 (mybroadband.co.za)
• http:// 196.8.95.20 (standardbank.co.za)
• http://74.125.43.106 (google.co.za)

If this works, but entering www.vodacom.co.za doesn’t, then changing DNS entries will help. Edit your connection settings, and try one of the following:

196.43.46.190 – SAIX
196.207.40.165 – Vodacom
168.10.2.2 – Internet Solutions (IS)
208.67.222.222 – OpenDNS
208.67.220.220 – OpenDNS alt

It is possible to mix them up, rather than using two by the same company.