back to article Barclaycard site falls over, web payments impossible

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. …

COMMENTS

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  1. Tom Chiverton 1
    FAIL

    It's not DNS related, as anyone with half a ping could verify.

    It's just not answering over HTTP(S).

    1. Paul Eagles
      Facepalm

      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.

      1. Shanghai Tom
        Alien

        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.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Shanghai Tom

          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 ?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Shanghai Tom

            "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.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Shanghai Tom

              >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.

        2. Paul Eagles

          Changing your DNS servers to the Google public DNS servers wouldn't have helped in this instance. At the time I first noticed the problem I checked 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 to see if they had cached the IP address but they didn't have it.

        3. Skoorb

          CacheCheck

          If you want to know what DNS results appear to different parts of the world, try https://www.opendns.com/support/cache/

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I agree

        I was getting that problem yesterday, dns would not resolve... It was around 5 I first had the issue, and Barclaycard had no clue it was happening, or the drone on the phone didn't, took me ages to explain what was broken to her...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Err...

      No all servers are configured to return ping (ICMP) packets.

  2. Michael Jennings

    Not just Barclaycard

    My internet banking with Barclays private client business is not allowing me to log in and is generating an error. I need to transfer money to a different bank by this evening, so this is not good.

    1. Tom Chiverton 1
      Facepalm

      Re: Not just Barclaycard

      So ring them and do it over the phone then.

    2. Roger Stenning
      Meh

      Re: Not just Barclaycard

      Not affecting personal banking, at least. Just logged in to check, worked fine.

  3. Andy ORourke
    Happy

    or even

    nip into a branch

    1. Lee Dowling Silver badge

      Re: or even

      Hahaha. That's a good one.

      a) Barclaycard is not Barclays (but, granted, you can usually do most things).

      b) A branch? What's that?

      c) You feel like queuing for hours to do a money transfer while being harassed every ten seconds to "use this machine over here"?

  4. Bigbadbod
    Happy

    More 'cloud' fun

    Hehe, I love seeing stuff like this, after all the 'cloud' crap that is being shoved down our throats.

    This is just another example of why the 'cloud' can't work.

    1. Travis Hayler
      WTF?

      Re: More 'cloud' fun

      What has the cloud to do with BarclayCard? This is a technical failure at DNS level, this could affect any website and so on. If BarclayCard were a cloud offering business fair enough.

      Comment is pointless.

      1. Bigbadbod

        Re: More 'cloud' fun

        Actually, it has alot to do with the cloud.

        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.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: More 'cloud' fun

          "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.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Oh grow up

      pointing to a single incident (which we don't know all the details about) and going "nrarr nrarr it'll never work" is pretty lame.

      ANYTHING can go wrong in any system. The trick is to design systems where you can cope.

    3. theblackhand
      Mushroom

      Re: This is just another example of why the 'cloud' can't work

      Or just another example of IT not working?

      Shall we all pack up and go home?

    4. hplasm
      Devil

      Re: More 'cloud' fun

      Not the cloud.

      More like the way Barclays & Co treat their IT staff like sh1t.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: More 'cloud' fun

      Just another example of why people should stop using the term "cloud".... By cloud, you just mean internet. Servers go down, but they haven't started going down since people started calling them "clouds."

  5. twolegs
    Coat

    must be DNSChanger

    some might blame the FBI removing infected servers

    some might say they've finally run out of money

    some might say they've had to pay their bonuses in full

    probably just some c*up

    ps. barclaycard is a trading name of Barclays plc

  6. Leonard 1

    Re: Not just Barclaycard

    @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.

  7. Metal Marv
    Trollface

    Non-Available system Fee

    Shouldn't there be a clause in the Contract that if they fuck up when we try to use their services we could charge them a fee? say £25 a go?

    1. Steve Evans

      Re: Non-Available system Fee

      And don't forget to bill them £12 every time you inform them.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Non-Available system Fee

      Very true, I doubt they would be understanding if someone local internet connection went down and they were unable to pay on time.

  8. Great Bu

    This sort of thing causes significant problems.......

    I was trying to make an online payment for something urgently and it gave me all these incomprehensible error messages, now my erection is all but gone and I think the guy I share my office with will be back from lunch any minute......

  9. Gerard Krupa

    Very Useful Card

    Since they dramatically reduced their interest-free payment period by a week and removed the Nectar points offer my Barclaycard has become little more than structural reinforcement in my wallet to keep the card that I DO use from getting warped.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    6pm? no... it was down at 5pm at the latest!

    Always have a backup card as you can't trust the banks...

  11. Naughtyhorse

    isit just me being paranoid? or....

    is this the 3rd big dns fuckup i have read about in 3 days.

    then again i believe in global warming so what do i know1

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Service Update ...

    "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/

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