It's not DNS related, as anyone with half a ping could verify.
It's just not answering over HTTP(S).
Barclaycard customers trying to buy things online have found that their cards don't work. The Barclaycard problems started at 6pm yesterday and are still dragging on. It appears as if it's a DNS failure that has booted the payment processor and all customer accounts offline. The site throws up "can't find the server at secure. …
It definitely was DNS, none of the 3 servers hosting the DNS for barclaycard.co.uk were returning an IP address for secure.barclaycard.co.uk:
paul@vm:~:$ nslookup
> server ns1.barcap.com
Default server: ns1.barcap.com
Address: 141.228.140.129#53
> secure.barclaycard.co.uk.
Server: ns1.barcap.com
Address: 141.228.140.129#53
** server can't find secure.barclaycard.co.uk.: NXDOMAIN
I'm told that it is working again now, but I haven't tried yet.
As a backup, do NSLOOKUP secure.barclaycard.co.uk 8.8.8.8 or use 4.4.4.4 , these are non-uk DNS servers.
Write down the IP address it gives back, and then you might be able to connect by using the numeric address instead of the name.
I have a few jotted down for when things like this happen and I can usually get online.
If you want to get complex, over-ride the dns servers in your router or Network Connection to use these, this will push all dns to them but may extend your response times slightly.
Oh dear Tom.....don't give up the day job.....
(a) 8.8.8.8 or use 4.4.4.4
Erm.... it's 8.8.4.4 actually, NOT 4.4.4.4 (https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/)
(b) these are non-uk DNS servers
Heard of anycast DNS ? Are you 100% sure there are no UK nodes ?
(c) you might be able to connect by using the numeric address instead of the name
Erm yeah... to a static website perhaps. What happens about form submits or links that reference the DNS name ? Or redirects that use DNS ?
"Erm yeah... to a static website perhaps. What happens about form submits or links that reference the DNS name ? Or redirects that use DNS ?"
You might want to hang onto your own day job. You have heard of the hosts file haven't you? It overrides the DNS name with the IP address you specify.
>You might want to hang onto your own day job. You have heard of the hosts file haven't you? It >overrides the DNS name with the IP address you specify.
Yeah, hang onto yours whilst you're at it mate.
Hacking the hosts file is a pointless and stupid fix to the Barclays problem or problems like it and will cause more problems than it's worth.
Also what about load balanced sites, and sites with low TTL set on their DNS records in order to allow short notice emergency changes ..... are you going to carry on manually hacking your hosts file to keep up to date.
"I am pointing out how unstable the web actually is and fools actually think that they will always have full access to all their important documents whenever they need them"
What's the solution? Go back to mailing checks? The benefits of the internet, or the "cloud" if you like, far outweigh the negatives. It is like someone saying that people should go back to horses because things can go wrong in complex automotive systems.
@Tom Chiverton: Upon receiving the error message you are given a number to call. It says in the message that this is a 24hr number. So when you call them, the answer machine message informs you that they are only open between 8am and 5pm!!!
This problem has been here for almost the entire week.
"We're sorry - due to essential maintenance, the 'Pay your card bill' facility in mybarclaycard will be unavailable between Midnight and 6am on Sunday, 29th April 2012".
http://www.secure.barclaycard.co.uk/personal-home/index.html
Full DNS report here ...
http://www.dnsvalidation.com/