DNS is dead .. on one computer on the LAN!

[Xain]

I have a 10Mbit H/Duplex hub based network at home with 3 computers and a router on it. On just one of these computers, DNS is completely dead. The failing computer is Win2000 with SP3 just installed, also fails with SP2 as went back to make sure it wasn't SP3 causing the problem. The network card is a D-Link DFE550 TX, with latest drivers.

It's DNS settings are identical to the other Win2000 SP2 machine I have on the network (which I'm typing this on) - they are both set to use my 512KBit DSL router for DNS. It also fails with my ISP's DNS servers entered (the ones the router is set to).

This is bizarre .. just one machine, configured the same as a fully working machine. Could it be damaged network card? This machine has strangely failed to be able to access the LAN file and printer sharing too, for the last month or so.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

How much connectivity is there? Can you ping:
The other machines on the local network,
The Router,
Anything beyond the router (such as the router's default gateway or the ISPs DNS servers)

Unless there's definitely some kind of physical connection, it's unlikely to be DNS failing.

 

[Xain]

I can ping or access web sites / ftp servers by IP fine.

ipconfig /all

Windows 2000 IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : holly
Primary DNS Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : D-Link DFE-550TX FAST Ethernet 10/10
0 Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-BA-71-FC-27
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.200
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.200
195.112.4.4
195.112.4.7

Holly is the computer's name, 192.168.1.1 is her IP. 192.168.1.200 is the DSL router. I've tried it without the router in the DNS section and with only the router there .. both fail the same way. The other, fully functional computers just have the router down for DNS.

 

[Xain]

I've found at bit more to test - addresses in the hosts file (%systemroot%/system32/drivers/etc) are found OK. I should also state that 195.112.4.4 and .7 are the ISP, Nildram, DNS servers which the router is set to.

 

[Xain]

Problem solved.

The firewall was badly configured ... human error after all (what my family call BUS - bungling user syndrome, coined after years of programming together... )