DNS does not resolves names! How to troubleshoot...?

[SammyBar]

Hi all,

We run our own DNS server. It is a Windows 2000 server SP4 wit all security
patches applied automatically from Windows Update. This server also is the
only domain controller. Yesterday the DNS suddenly stopped to resolve names.
The service was up and the log did not reflected anything. I reset the
service, restart the server and nothing happened. All the time I was able to
reach an Internet address outsido our LAN. Even I was able to browse some
web sites whose names were cached on the DNS server. So it seemed the DNS
server was working.
Then I tryed to troubleshoot the address resolution. I used nslookup to
resolve names like www.yahoo.com and the answer I got was DNS failed to
resolve the name:
What is the problem? It is supposed my DNS should contact root servers to
start resolution, what it means? May be I lost the access to the root
servers or something alike? Is the problem with our DNS or is it outside?
My last resort was to enable a forwarder on my DNS to an DNS server I know
(this DNS server is not run by my ISP but by other one). It worked but I
want to return my DNS server to work by itself.
So what can be wrong? How to troubleshoot the problem?
Any hint is welcomed

Thanks in advance
Sammy

 

[Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]]

Hi all,

We run our own DNS server. It is a Windows 2000 server SP4 wit all
security patches applied automatically from Windows Update. This
server also is the only domain controller. Yesterday the DNS suddenly
stopped to resolve names. The service was up and the log did not
reflected anything. I reset the service, restart the server and
nothing happened. All the time I was able to reach an Internet
address outsido our LAN. Even I was able to browse some web sites
whose names were cached on the DNS server. So it seemed the DNS
server was working.
Then I tryed to troubleshoot the address resolution. I used nslookup
to resolve names like www.yahoo.com and the answer I got was DNS
failed to resolve the name:
What is the problem? It is supposed my DNS should contact root
servers to start resolution, what it means? May be I lost the access
to the root servers or something alike? Is the problem with our DNS
or is it outside? My last resort was to enable a forwarder on my DNS
to an DNS server I know (this DNS server is not run by my ISP but by
other one). It worked but I want to return my DNS server to work by
itself.
So what can be wrong? How to troubleshoot the problem?
Any hint is welcomed

Check that recursion is not disabled on the Advanced tab, if is isn't
disabled, it is possible your root hints are corrupted and need to be
reinstalled.
249868 - Replacing Root Hints with the Cache.dns File:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;249868