Virgin default DNS blocking domain with certain keyword

[alexcroox]

I'm building a new website for a client: https://pawpaddock.co.uk

Their website is completely unaccessible from Virgin broadband when using Virgin's DNS. It works immediately if you switch to Google's DNS or a mobile network.

It feels like there is a keyword blacklist on Virgin's DNS resolvers because any combination of those works in other TLDs/hostnames also fail to resolve:

https://pawpaddock.co.uk

https://pawpaddock.uk

https://pawpaddock-uploads-development.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/

Anything that has "pawpaddock" in the hostname fails to resolve to a server. Switching to Google or Cloudflare's DNS (1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8) or any mobile network, it works fine. All of our Virgin Media customers are experiencing this. It's not local to my network or setup.

Who do I contact to resolve this?

[Client62]

Could have been the DNS replication takes a bit of time.

Just tried this morning and using VM DNS and VM residential internet ...

Got a web page for :
https://pawpaddock.co.uk


Not found from this one but it does not have a DNS entry on any of VM DNS/ Google DNS / OpenDNS
https://pawpaddock.uk/

XML returned from 
https://pawpaddock-uploads-development.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/

[alexcroox]

Sorry the domain should have been https://dev.pawpaddock.uk (live site not ready yet)

The DNS has been live for months/years on those domains so definitely not a propagation issue.

Are you sure you have your DNS servers set to your router? E.g mine are 194.168.4.100 (defaults if I delete custom/manual entries)

Here you can see how it's blackholed by Virgin DNS, but other domains aren't.

[paul0363]

Pages seem to load fine on my VM connection. pawpaddock.uk returns a "not found" regrdless of DNS server but all the others resolve

[Client62]

No issues with web link : https://dev.pawpaddock.uk/

Our VM system is a Hub 3 in Router mode, the HP PC below is DHCP connected. 
We have VM "Child Safe" content restrictions disabled.

The VM primary and secondary DNS are shown below...

A DNS leak test shows the DNS as Virgin Media too.

Here an NS lookup with the VM DNS :

Works in Firefox ..



Works in Edge ...

[alexcroox]

I wonder if it's regional? I'm south Hampshire and their business operates around this area. When I first took the job I couldn't access their site either and they said they'd had tons of complaints from customers not being able to access all were using VM too. They advise these customers to visit on mobile networks which then works fine for them, but obviously not ideal/sustainable.  

[Client62]

We are Colchester, Essex but the question of locality feels like a distraction from the root cause.

Could VM's Child Safe be at the root of this ? It uses DNS redirection as does VM Virus Safe.

When a recent HTTPS website was blocked by Virus Safe ( in error ) it just looked like an SSL error in web browsers.

It is not VM Virus Safe in this case because we do have Virus Safe Enabled.

[alexcroox]

Yeah definitely off. No redirections or SSL errors as it's a total DNS block where the domains don't resolve at all

[paul0363]

I can reach the site with Child Safe enabled (results in my post above were obtained with Child Safe and Virus Safe ON). 

[Client62]

So Child Safe and Virus Safe are off the list of troubles.

What end users do with their computers and mobiles we can't tell. 

If a VM internet user can not resolve the website name to an IP I'd conclude that they are not using the 2 VM DNS that we have tested.