Connecting to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

[Guest]

Hi,

I am trying to resolve this issue and find it challenging. Well this is a
laptop hooked up to the network. User is trying to access Internet through IE
6 SP1. IE is open and it says connecting to the IP Address which usually does
not. The user is connecting to anysite by default and his default site is
www.msn.com. Even, if I change it to any other site as default its the same
thing.

I can tracert to the site and ping to the site (ofcourse tracerts and pings
are blocked at the router level at Microsoft). But, after he times out on the
page and then if he presses F5 or clicks on refresh he is able to go to that
default site and from then on he is able to connect to any other site.

Notebook is IBM Thinkpad. Windows XP Professional. Any other info you need,
I can provide. But, I would appreciate if you could let me know what could be
the problem. For me I find this something to do with the DNS resolution, but
there are no LMHOSTS files used. His DNS settings are correct which is
obtained from the DHCP server.

What else could be wrong that he is unable to connect?

thanks for your reply.

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

Hi,

I am trying to resolve this issue and find it challenging. Well this is a
laptop hooked up to the network. User is trying to access Internet through IE
6 SP1. IE is open and it says connecting to the IP Address which usually does
not. The user is connecting to anysite by default and his default site is
www.msn.com. Even, if I change it to any other site as default its the same
thing.

That site is an alias. Sometimes it seems it makes a difference,
e.g. the DNS may resolve aliases more slowly and hence
have the possibility of timing out more often with them.

I can tracert to the site and ping to the site (ofcourse tracerts and pings
are blocked at the router level at Microsoft). But, after he times out on the
page and then if he presses F5 or clicks on refresh he is able to go to that
default site and from then on he is able to connect to any other site.

Have you found out if it makes any difference if you try to ping -n 1 first?
E.g. the idea there would be that that would perhaps cache the lookup
long enough for IE to use it again successfully.

Notebook is IBM Thinkpad. Windows XP Professional. Any other info you need,
I can provide. But, I would appreciate if you could let me know what could be
the problem. For me I find this something to do with the DNS resolution, but
there are no LMHOSTS files used.

Wrong file. It's HOSTS which would be involved.
In fact I usually suggest using HOSTS as a temporary override
for such lookup problems. At least if you used such an override
and the symptom still occurred you would know that DNS was
not the issue (unless it was occurring due to subsequent redirects

His DNS settings are correct which is
obtained from the DHCP server.

What else could be wrong that he is unable to connect?

Timeouts? Busy servers? Network congestion? Etc.

Try using netcap to capture a failed connection to see what's happening.
Use Ethereal to format the trace. If it is a simple problem and if the
host server is unaffected by the use of a proxy an alternative tracer
would be fiddlertool but I doubt it would show you any timing details.


Note that while IE is involved with this problem that the real expertise
you need is probably in a networking newsgroup.

In any case here is an interactive troubleshooter which you can try.
It contains a link to an XP newsgroup which specializes in networking.

http://www.michna.com/kb/


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
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