Slow page loading, sort of

[localzuk]

So, we have a slightly odd issue with our connectivity at the moment. Pages take ages from asking for a site to it actually starting to render in the browser.

 

Eg.

 

Entering Google and pressing enter

There will be a 5+ second delay before the browser gets anything back and starts to render the page

However, once things start appearing everything loads near enough instantly.

Downloading a file will happen at 1Mbps+

 

So, I'm trying to identify the weak link in our chain

 

This is our setup:

 

Onsite squid proxy (we also have a TMG box which I use for testing). Both return the same issue.

Upstream proxy - SWGfL

 

Local DNS servers, with forwarder to our LEA DNS servers which themselves forward out to the net.

 

So far, I think I've narrowed it down to being DNS holding things up.

 

If I do an nslookup on a machine to an external web address, I end up with something like this:

 

Server:  dnsserver.domain.extensionAddress:  IP.ADD.RE.SS


DNS request timed out.
   timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
   timeout was 2 seconds.
Name:    drive.google.com
Addresses:  2a00:1450:4009:808::1009
  173.194.41.133
  173.194.41.134
  173.194.41.135
  173.194.41.136
  173.194.41.137
  173.194.41.142
  173.194.41.128
  173.194.41.129
  173.194.41.130
  173.194.41.131
  173.194.41.132

 

So, as far as I can tell it looks like the timeouts for DNS are reflecting in the page loads.

 

How do I go about reducing this down?

[sparkeh]

Does the issue occur with internal webpages? i.e. is the issue with your local DNS server or further upstream at your LA DNS.

Can you test out using something like OpenDNS to take the upstream LA DNS out of the equation?

[localzuk]

If I do an nslookup direct to our lea DNS servers, I get 3 2 second timeouts then a response.

 

So, would you say that the LEA DNS is the cause then?

[sparkeh]

If I do an nslookup direct to our lea DNS servers, I get 3 2 second timeouts then a response.

 

So, would you say that the LEA DNS is the cause then?

Well, if internal lookups are fine (so they never touch the LA DNS) and the LA DNS lookups return the timeouts you describe then it seems to me the problem is beyond your DNS/network.

Given that once the DNS is done, websites load quickly (ruling out connectivity issues), my money would be on the LA DNS having issues.