Better handling of IP address changes

[camh]

My IP address just changed because of my service being moved from the NSW ADSL2 POP to the VIC ADSL2 POP.

I have bought from Exetel two other services which depend on my IP address:
* A reverse DNS entry for my IP address
* A /30 netblock routed to my primary IP address

Both of these services are now not working since Exetel changed my IP address. My email to support seems to have been ignored.

My suggestion to improve Exetel's processes: If you are to insitute any changes, produce a report of what other services you have sold that depend on those you are changing. Then make sure you also update the dependent services when you make the changes. Also, notify your customers of these changes so they know that you are aware of the dependent services.

A suggestion with regard to notification: Give more than 24 hours notice that you are going to change someone's IP address. This gives your customers enough time to update any DNS servers they may run that publish the to-be-changed IP address. I got three hours notice (on a Friday afternoon too - so even less notice when factoring in the longer than usual lunch), and did not have enough time to drop the TTL on my DNS records to facilitate the change smoothly. Some of my regular emails are still not making it in as the old IP address is still cached "out there".

[wensu]

i believe such was sent prior to the actual change, ie: the day or more before. (3 hours before? unlikely.)

the product is also of residential grade, one should not expect business grade or mission critical type support that is time dependant.

[camh]

i believe such was sent prior to the actual change, ie: the day or more before. (3 hours before? unlikely.)

"Unlikely"? How would you know? Are you looking at my mailbox?

Code: Select all

Subject: IP address change for ADSL service number - 03XXXXXXXX
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:24:39 +1000
From: residentialsupport@exetel.com.au

The change occurred at around 4:30pm. That's three hours notice.

the product is also of residential grade, one should not expect business grade or mission critical type support that is time dependant.

I believe my /30 netblock is classed as a business service, as I need to contact business support to get action on it.

Regardless, even for a residential service its rather substandard to have it break with little notice when it can easily be made to work seamlessly to the client. That is all I am suggesting.

[wensu]

"Unlikely"? How would you know? Are you looking at my mailbox?

such are sent more then 3 hrs before usually ... if you say the e-mail is authored only 3hrs before the change, then sure, I can understand your frustration

i don't need to look into your inbox .. to know

I believe my /30 netblock is classed as a business service, as I need to contact business support to get action on it.

Regardless, even for a residential service its rather substandard to have it break with little notice when it can easily be made to work seamlessly to the client. That is all I am suggesting.

OK.. and

OK

[James]

My IP address just changed because of my service being moved from the NSW ADSL2 POP to the VIC ADSL2 POP.

I have bought from Exetel two other services which depend on my IP address:
* A reverse DNS entry for my IP address
* A /30 netblock routed to my primary IP address

Both of these services are now not working since Exetel changed my IP address. My email to support seems to have been ignored.

My suggestion to improve Exetel's processes: If you are to insitute any changes, produce a report of what other services you have sold that depend on those you are changing. Then make sure you also update the dependent services when you make the changes. Also, notify your customers of these changes so they know that you are aware of the dependent services.

A suggestion with regard to notification: Give more than 24 hours notice that you are going to change someone's IP address. This gives your customers enough time to update any DNS servers they may run that publish the to-be-changed IP address. I got three hours notice (on a Friday afternoon too - so even less notice when factoring in the longer than usual lunch), and did not have enough time to drop the TTL on my DNS records to facilitate the change smoothly. Some of my regular emails are still not making it in as the old IP address is still cached "out there".

It was actually fixed at 6:59pm on Friday.

[camh]

It was actually fixed at 6:59pm on Friday.

I beg to differ. I cannot get packets through to my net block, as indicated by the traceroute posted _after_ 6:59pm on Friday. Please refer to ticket [Business Support #778360] to see the trouble I am having getting you guys to correctly route my net block.

With regard to the reverse DNS entry:

Code: Select all

$ host -a 220.233.37.80
Trying "80.37.233.220.in-addr.arpa"
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 1939
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;80.37.233.220.in-addr.arpa.    IN      PTR

;; ANSWER SECTION:
80.37.233.220.in-addr.arpa. 38190 IN    PTR     80.37.233.220.exetel.com.au.

Received 85 bytes from 203.30.44.23#53 in 0 ms

It does not look like that has been fixed either.

May I politely ask what you feel was fixed at 6:59pm on Friday?

[James]

It was actually fixed at 6:59pm on Friday.

I beg to differ. I cannot get packets through to my net block, as indicated by the traceroute posted _after_ 6:59pm on Friday. Please refer to ticket [Business Support #778360] to see the trouble I am having getting you guys to correctly route my net block.

With regard to the reverse DNS entry:

Code: Select all

$ host -a 220.233.37.80
Trying "80.37.233.220.in-addr.arpa"
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 1939
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;80.37.233.220.in-addr.arpa.    IN      PTR

;; ANSWER SECTION:
80.37.233.220.in-addr.arpa. 38190 IN    PTR     80.37.233.220.exetel.com.au.

Received 85 bytes from 203.30.44.23#53 in 0 ms

It does not look like that has been fixed either.

May I politely ask what you feel was fixed at 6:59pm on Friday?

Wrong ticket? 778360 is a few months old.

[camh]

Wrong ticket? 778360 is a few months old.

It is the ticket for a similar problem I had one month ago. I had problems getting Exetel staff to believe that I had a problem. It concluded with the following statement from the person handling the ticket:

If you have this problem again, which is not likely, since we just finished some major core network upgrade work, you can include the previous ticket number as reference.

I referenced that ticket number as asked, as I seem to be having the same or a similar issue. The "problem" I was having was getting Exetel staff to believe my problem. Perhaps I was not able to articulate the problem clearly.

When I received notice that my IP address was to change, I immediately contacted Exetel support to try and head off the situation that has now occurred. This is recorded in [Exetel Residential Support #817651]. Since I got such a poor response in email that did not address my queries at all, I used the phone support where I was told to use the forum if my /30 became unroutable over the weekend, as I suspect it may.

I do not have a more recent ticket number, as I had no response to my email request to businesssupport@exetel.com.au which you asked me to send in this thread: http://forum.exetel.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=284&t=28502

I really do not know what else to do. I feel I am in the same situation as last time, where I now have Exetel staff (yourself) telling me the problem is fixed, yet my service still does not work. I am not getting a response from the email address I was asked to use. I do not really want to conduct this on a public forum, but at least I get some response here.

Please help. I just want my /30 working again and my reverse DNS entry put back in place.

[JingW]

We have corrected the routing at our end.

I can not see your primary ADSL2 service IP is connected.

If your primary IP is not getting on line, your additional IP block has no chance to work.

[camh]

We have corrected the routing at our end.
I can not see your primary ADSL2 service IP is connected.
If your primary IP is not getting on line, your additional IP block has no chance to work.

Wow. Just wow. [takes a deep breath]

I can't help feel a little offended that you need to tell me such a basic fact, given the correspondence I've had with Exetel in the past in the previously quoted tickets. I understand you probably meant no offence, but I am a little taken aback.

I can assure you that my primary ADSL2 service is connected. All these messages I am posting to the forum is done through that service. Additionally, if you go to one of the many sites on the 'net that lets you traceroute and ping (such as http://network-tools.com/) you'll see my connection is very much alive, responding to both pings and traceroutes.

If you cannot see my primary ADSL2 service IP connected, may I suggest that it may be the problem? If part of the Exetel network cannot reach my IP address, that is likely to be the reason packets destined for my /30 are not making it to my primary IP address.

Furthermore, my reverse DNS entry is STILL not correct. Are you at least able to address that immediately?

[NetworkAdmin]

I have alerted the duty engineer and asked them to attend to it directly.

[David_h]

I have investigated and this should be resolved for the moment.

However at this stage the issue is still under investigation.

Let me know directly if the issue happens again - davidh@exetel.com.au

[camh]

I have alerted the duty engineer and asked them to attend to it directly.

Thank you & thanks David. I can confirm that I am now receiving packets addressed to my /30 subnet.

I appreciate your action.