news Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp All Down - "caused by a DNS (domain name server) fail"

[dncafe]

"Global users are experiencing outages on Facebook, including all social networks the company owns, which include Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. When navigating to these websites, a server error will appear — Instagram shows a “5xx server error,” which indicates that this is an issue with Facebook’s servers. Users are also unable to send messages or load new content on the mobile apps for these platforms. Even Oculus, Facebook’s virtual reality platform, is experiencing outages, according to a tweet the platform posted.

It appears that the outage is caused by a DNS (domain name server) fail — this is the naming structure that forms the web’s infrastructure. So, if you try to navigate to facebook.com right now, the internet won’t know where to find facebook.com."

Full Article: https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/04/facebook-messenger-instagram-whatsapp-are-all-down/

 

[Future Sensors]

Following the Facebook outage that took place yesterday, we saw people looking to BGPlay to get a better view of what went on. Here's a look at what the RIPEstat visualisation has to show us about the event in question.

https://labs.ripe.net/author/alun_davies/facebook-down-and-out-in-bgplay/

 

[poweredbyme]

No, that won't help at all.

It always works for me.
Yeah I don't use social media sites. But that will not make difference. As long as their webservers are running on the same IP address in your "hosts" file, you can access all the websites in your hosts file without using DNS.

 

[Future Sensors]

It always works for me.
Yeah I don't use social media sites. But that will not make difference. As long as their webservers are running on the same IP address in your "hosts" file, you can access all the websites in your hosts file without using DNS.

No, there was a huge BGP problem.

 

[johnn]

Blaming DNS problem is BS.
Let me explain how DNS work in English.
DNS is like a phone book - We know Jack but we don't know his phone number so we look for Jack in the phone book.
- Each Server has one or more IP addresses (for backup or redundancy)
- Here is what it looks line in the DNS server: Facebook.com - 155.23.4.55
-When we type Facebook.com in the URL the computer goes out and look for the IP address from the DNS server in order to locate where the server is.
- Your ISP will have a copy of the DNS (subset)
How many DNS servers do we have: hundred of them scattered around the world:
https://root-servers.org/
Because if we only have one DNS server and if the server is down then there is no Internet.

So blaming DNS issues is nonsense.

 

[poweredbyme]

No, there was a huge BGP problem.

I wrote the way how you can completely bypass DNS.
If the issue is on DNS, the method I wrote above solves it perfectly.
It's a well known solution in Linux World.

If the webserver is running on the same IP in your hosts file, you can always access that server without DNS. But if the webserver (http server) is down, you can never browse those websites.

 

[johnn]

Windows is the same. You can have your own DNS server(s) for all the Servers in your network.

 

[Sutruk]

I didn't know. Because I don't use Windows. Thanks for the info.

If you use Linux for desktop instead of Windows then you are in a way more stable and secure OS.
Although Linux is mainly used for Server use, for its stability and security.

 

[Sutruk]

. But I didn't know bypassing DNS is possible on Windows.

Almost the same root like Linux. .../.../etc/hosts and also the same format, 0.0.0.0 url

 

[MadAboutDomains]

Most people that use Cloudflare proxy their DNS entries through their service, so you never end up knowing the IP address you're actually hitting because they perform the request for you. This is how they provide protection to you using their network.

They probably have a similar setup at Facebook provided by another supplier or themselves.

This has the added bonus that if you change a DNS entry at Cloudflare it will take effect immediately instead of having to wait for the DNS TTL because they channel you to your back end.

Question: If this stops working properly is it a DNS problem? I guess not DNS in its purest sense, because there's other stuff going on, but it's still doing the same job...

 

[jhm]

@iTesla Starting my own one: Feetbook. The only problem is I think it may attract the wrong people

 

[Future Sensors]

https://www.potaroo.net/ispcol/2021-10/nofacebook.html

 

[lock]

It will be php8 upgrade and will go down again as a guess.

 

[Donmarick]

For many Facebook is a great marketing tool, I see this on small companies without webpage bars/restaurants etc it's cheaper than making a website.

 

[lock]

For many Facebook is a great marketing tool, I see this on small companies without webpage bars/restaurants etc it's cheaper than making a website.

My space was first and is now not your space. Plenty learnt then to get own site.

 

[koolishman]

The problem is getting people to your website not just once but on a regular basis. If you are paying to reach them, then they can see your page's call to action while scrolling through pictures of food their family and friends ate, or someone airing their dirty laundry or perhaps vaguebooking.

Have own website. Run FB ads if they help.

Lot of people reviews food places on google too for free.