WebSites and DNS Servers

Two kinda unrelated topics today, but I didn't feel like doing two separate posts (yeah, I know, lazy).

I've got a new version of my website up - for those who remember, I was trying to create a site that was easy to maintain, by having a single index page with dynamically loaded iframe content for menu items and content. It took a while, and I got it working, but there were significant problems with it, not lease that search engines would index and provide links to the iframe content htmls rather than the index page. So my new approach is template-like: I have a main template file which includes comment tags for customizable elements (such as
menu buttons and content). I then wrote a little parser which takes the template file, the content file, and the name of the content, and generates the content page. So if I want to make a change to the menu, or the colours, or something like that, I just change the template, run each of my content snippet files through the parser, and get full content files to upload. Not quite as cool as what I was trying to do before, but it does work much better.

DNS Servers - well, I've been using my motorola v300 to connect my laptop to the internet via GPRS. As a pay per mb scheme, it can get expensive for heavy browsing or downloading, but it waaay cheaper than dial-up or adsl, and it's great if all you really want to do is have a permanent connection to the net, browse every now and then, and be permanently signed in to msn messenger. I'm with Vodacom, on a Family Top-up contract, and following their unwritten "worst of both worlds" philosophy (under which my contract acts like a contract when prepaid would be better, and acts like prepaid when a contract would be better), I can't buy bundled megs and so can't the cheaper rates. But overall it's been pretty cool.

Lately, though, I've been having DNS problems. I'm often having problems logging in - their server doesn't respond - or I can login but can't browse or login to msn since I can't resolve ip addresses, and msn reports that there's a DNS problem. Or I'm running along fine, but suddenly get signed out of msn and can't browse because I've lost the ability to resolve ip's. Or I get disconnected, apparently for the same reason. And even when it's going fairly smoothly, I often have to access pages twice - the first time it's "page couldn't be found", the second time it works. This is annoying for all the obvious reasons, but also because it becomes difficult to measure usage, since it's a bunch of separate sessions (some very, very short) instead of one long one. Also, when I lose the DNS during a session, it doesn't let me disconnect properly so I have to actually switch off my phone and then switch it back on again to reset the GPRS thingy, which is a pain.

I e-mailed them about it, and after they checked that the number I was dialling was correct (and asking for my handset make & model, don't ask me why) they escalated the matter to one of their "VAS consultants", who phoned me on my cell while I was at work (and, typically, not at my desk). I really wish people wouldn't do this - if I've logged a complaint via e-mail, respond via e-mail, dammit! I work in a very open-plan office, and it's very difficult to take phone calls during work (and impossible to take phone calls where you don't want everyone to hear what you're talking about, not that that's particularly relevant here). I've e-mailed them back to ask them to respond via e-mail or after hours, so hopefully they will and hopefully they'll have something useful to tell me, but I doubt it (especially after my experiences with Storm At Home).