DNS problem

[entropy5]

I am trying to troubleshoot a friends network. The network consists of 2 XP boxes with XP Home going through a Linksys BEFSR41 v3 router sharing a DSL connection.

One of the boxes is a dedicated security camera DVR and thus needs a static internal IP; this one connects to the 'net fine. This IP adress is set outside of the routers DHCP assigning range.

The other (problem) box is a normal PC that can only load pages when the IP address is entered numerically (123.456.789); it won't load pages using names. It can see the other PC, share files/printers, etc; just not resovle addresses.

I have tried setting the "problem box" to both static (outside the DHCP range), within the range, static with DHCP completely disabled --no joy. I can ping the other box, I can ping numeric addresses such as Google's. I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling the NIC (this appears strange to me in that there is no address (MAC?) listed for this device anywhere, yet the LAN seems fine and the WAN just can't seem to resolve names to numeric addresses. The DNS server addresses are identical in all scenarios attempted (triple-triple checked each attempt).

Any ideas?

 

[DaiShan]

First, make sure your static IP's are of the same type. If your router is 192.168.1.1 make sure that both PC's are 192.168.1.x. Next, set the gateway on both machines to 192.168.1.1 (the ip of the router) now in the DNS field you will need to make sure to enter in the ISP's DNS servers. This information can be obtained from the ISP. You fill this information in the DNS boxes in the tcp/ip properties box. This should resolve (no pun intended) your problem.

 

[ktwebb]

You should be able to get your ISP's DNS from one of your routers admin pages. I do agree however that you should be using those IP's for DNS resolution, not the router's IP, which just forwards DNS requests.

Obviously your IP's are on the right segment if you can share files etc.. Nothing to worry about there. Basically just manually add your ISP's DNS IP's into the NIC's properties.

Oh, your NIC's MAC addy can be found by running ipconfig /all from a prompt though that doesn't come into play with your problem.

 

[entropy5]

The addresses I'm trying are in the 192.168.1.xxx range, gateway is 192.168.1.1, DNS addresses are from SBC Yahoo (triple checked for correctness); the identical setup is used on the working box. When I do ipconfig, no MAC address is listed; actually listed as all zeros.

It was suggested to try ipconfig /flush dns, then ipconfig /release, followed with ipconfig /renew. Also suggested was either uninstalling TCP/IP, or using a TCP/IP stack healer. Spyware/malware/virus may also be involved? I plan on trying these at soonest opportunity

 

[Woodie]

IPCONFIG /renew and /release are just for DHCP setups. On the DHCP server (router) do you have it configured to hand out a DNS server? If so, which one?

This smells like JUST a DNS problem. You shouldn't have to go fix/reinstall the IP stack.

I know it's not recommended by others, but did you try setting your workstation DNS to the IP of the router?

ipconfig /all will show you what DNS server you're configured to use. You can test DNS by entering:
nslookup
then at the > prompt, type in things like:
google.com
anandtech.com
www.anandtech.com
and then exit to get out of nslookup.
You should get a response like:
C:\>nslookup
Default Server: gunner.barstow.local
Address: 192.168.166.10

> anandtech.com
Server: my.personal.DNSserver.local
Address: 192.168.***.***

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: anandtech.com
Address: 66.117.33.58

> exit