DNS expertise needed

[Bruce Chastain]

I'm trying to troubleshoot a DNS problem that is the direct result of
installing software. I've been trying to get a video capture input on my
nVidia card working, but had to give up because installing the driver killed
my internet connection. The driver worked ok as far as capturing video, but
completely killed my dial up internet connection. The dial up goes
perfectly, but nothing (IE, OE, etc.) communicates (errors and timeouts).

The odd part is that uninstalling the nVidia driver does NOT fix it. Only
doing a System Restore will fix it.

So I gave up on the nVidia driver, and went and bought a Pinnacle USB video
capture device. Well, guess what? Installing the Pinnacle does exactly the
same thing! It also kills my internet connection (I have no other home
networking components). The video capture works perfectly, just no
internet. And again, uninstalling it will not fix it. Only a System
Restore will fix it.

So using the much smaller and easier to install nVidia drivers for
troubleshooting, I've found that no existing exes or dlls are replaced, only
new files are added. The registry is dramatically changed by the
installation, so much so that I don't know what might or might not cause
this.

I've since discovered that both the nVidia and Pinnacle software install
some MS components that seem to be what's causing it. Something having to
Microsoft Video for Windows components. That creates a networking
connection in the connection list which disappears after the next boot (the
MS KB says that's normal).

My theory is that the Microsoft Video for Windows somehow creates network
components that are perhaps used for streaming video across the network, but
that's just a guess.

Anyway, the act of installing either of the above packages kills my dial up
internet. I can still ping by number, but ping by name always results in a
dns error (unable to resolve).

I've looked at every network utility I can find and still haven't figured
out what to do to get the dns working again. And a ton of searches have
turn up a couple of rare instances of others experiencing this, also fixed
by doing a System Restore.

So far the software companies haven't been much help, other than to point
fingers. Can anyone help me with the steps I need to take to properly
diagnose this get dns working again, without doing a System Restore?

Thanks for any and all help!
Bruce.

 

[jeff crawford]

-----Original Message-----
I'm trying to troubleshoot a DNS problem that is the direct result of
installing software. I've been trying to get a video capture input on my
nVidia card working, but had to give up because installing the driver killed
my internet connection. The driver worked ok as far as capturing video, but
completely killed my dial up internet connection. The dial up goes
perfectly, but nothing (IE, OE, etc.) communicates (errors and timeouts).

The odd part is that uninstalling the nVidia driver does NOT fix it. Only
doing a System Restore will fix it.

So I gave up on the nVidia driver, and went and bought a Pinnacle USB video
capture device. Well, guess what? Installing the Pinnacle does exactly the
same thing! It also kills my internet connection (I have no other home
networking components). The video capture works perfectly, just no
internet. And again, uninstalling it will not fix it. Only a System
Restore will fix it.

So using the much smaller and easier to install nVidia drivers for
troubleshooting, I've found that no existing exes or dlls are replaced, only
new files are added. The registry is dramatically changed by the
installation, so much so that I don't know what might or might not cause
this.

I've since discovered that both the nVidia and Pinnacle software install
some MS components that seem to be what's causing it. Something having to
Microsoft Video for Windows components. That creates a networking
connection in the connection list which disappears after the next boot (the
MS KB says that's normal).

My theory is that the Microsoft Video for Windows somehow creates network
components that are perhaps used for streaming video across the network, but
that's just a guess.

Anyway, the act of installing either of the above packages kills my dial up
internet. I can still ping by number, but ping by name always results in a
dns error (unable to resolve).

I've looked at every network utility I can find and still haven't figured
out what to do to get the dns working again. And a ton of searches have
turn up a couple of rare instances of others experiencing this, also fixed
by doing a System Restore.

So far the software companies haven't been much help, other than to point
fingers. Can anyone help me with the steps I need to take to properly
diagnose this get dns working again, without doing a System Restore?

Thanks for any and all help!
Bruce.


.

Call your internet provider and they should be able to
tell you your DNS setting.

 

[Dave - Freedonia]

That is really weird. If you can ping the website address but couldn't
get to it via the www.company.com address, then I would suspect your DNS
server addresses are missing in your network connection TCP/IP setup.
When you do a system restore, they are reverted back to what they were.

Take a look at them before and after you install this software. Another
thing to try is to open IE and enter the address of the website you are
trying to go to...
Google.com is 216.239.99.99

See if this brings up the site, if so, then it would enforce the idea
that your DNS server settings got erased.

HTH,
Dave

 

[The Unknown P]

I did some research and I only found one obscure article
about the same problem that you have. It appears that this
has nothing to do with the DNS but rather has to do with
the firewall. Apparently when using Video Capture the
firewall shuts the port down as a violation and turns the
connection off. No solution just a brief description or th
problem. I will keep looking. Keep smiling

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi Bruce - Since you say this occured with two different brands of cards, I
would suspect an interrupt conflict. Check properties in Device Manager and
see if perhaps you've got a conflict with another device. However, since
you're dealing here with a video issue, and that's always problematic -
another thing you might try is to re-install (or even update if possible)
your normal video drivers. See if either of these does any good.

--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In

 

[Bruce Chastain]

Hi Bruce - Since you say this occured with two different brands of cards, I
would suspect an interrupt conflict. Check properties in Device Manager and
see if perhaps you've got a conflict with another device.

It's not different cards. One is the video-in port of my video card, and
the Pinnacle device is a a USB 2.0 peripheral.

Both work fine as video capture devices, but both kill the dns name to ip
resolution. I can still communicate with the outside world by ip address,
but not by name. That doesn't sound like a IRQ conflict to me, but I
checked the device manager anyway and don't see any conflicts or error
indicators, before or after the software installation.

However, since
you're dealing here with a video issue, and that's always problematic -
another thing you might try is to re-install (or even update if possible)
your normal video drivers. See if either of these does any good.

I did download the latest ASUS drivers and that didn't make any difference
either. I installed them before the capture software, and again after, with
no change in the symptoms.

Thanks,
Bruce.

 

[Jim Byrd]

HI Bruce - Well, the only thing I can suggest past this point would be a
little involved. If you're willing to uninstall/restore, ect. back to where
everything was OK with the DNS, then you could do an install of one of these
using TotalUninstall which will detail for you *everything* that was changed
including all Registry entries, and perhaps track it down that way. If you
don't already have it, you can get TotalUninstall, free here:
http://www.geocities.com/ggmartau/ Highly recommended.

--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In

 

[Bruce Chastain]

I'm trying to troubleshoot a DNS problem that is the direct result of
installing software. I've been trying to get a video capture input on my
nVidia card working, but had to give up because installing the driver killed
my internet connection. The driver worked ok as far as capturing video, but
completely killed my dial up internet connection. The dial up goes
perfectly, but nothing (IE, OE, etc.) communicates (errors and timeouts).

Ok, solved it.

It turns out to be the McAffee antivirus software I had installed. Despite
being completely disabled, it was screwing up the winsock interface anyway,
and preventing the dns from working properly.

Somehow the installation of the Microsoft Video For Windows (part of both
the nVidia video capture drivers, and the Pinnacle MovieBox USB video
capture device) invoked the McAfee bug, which prevented the dns from
working.

I'm not sure, but I believe the module causing the problem was the McAfee
file cslsp.dll. I gather that's a filter which filters/intercepts ip
packets eventually handled by mswsock.dll. I couldn't tell if the problem
is in cslsp.dll, or in the registry entries that refer to cslsp.dll.

Anyway, after totally uninstalling McAfee both the nVidia and Pinnacle
Moviebox USB are now working perfectly, and so is my internet.

Thanks everyone for the help!

Bruce.