DNS problem on XP

[Pete]

Anyone shed any light on this strange problem I am seeing.

My PC is running XP home and is connected to the net using ADSL via
a router. The router is NAT'ed and is my DHCP server.
The PC is configured to have a default route to my router.

A few months back, I started seeing intermittent problems when trying to
access the net. Rebooting the PC always cures the problem but if I just leave
the PC alone, it also starts working again.
When the problem occurs the PC stops sending DNS requests to the DNS
server. Using 'netstat -r' shows that I still have a default route to the
router and there are no other strange routes. This can be verified as it is
still possible to contact the outside world using the IP address.

I have installed ZoneAlarm (free version) on the PC but even if I kill this
it has no effect.

Any thoughts on the cause of this? Is there are tracing/logging in XP
that would help debug this?

Thanks

Pete

 

[CZ]

Anyone shed any light on this strange problem I am seeing.

My PC is running XP home and is connected to the net using ADSL via
a router. The router is NAT'ed and is my DHCP server.
The PC is configured to have a default route to my router.

A few months back, I started seeing intermittent problems when trying to
access the net. Rebooting the PC always cures the problem but if I just
leave
the PC alone, it also starts working again.
When the problem occurs the PC stops sending DNS requests to the DNS
server. Using 'netstat -r' shows that I still have a default route to the
router and there are no other strange routes. This can be verified as it is
still possible to contact the outside world using the IP address.

I have installed ZoneAlarm (free version) on the PC but even if I kill this
it has no effect.

Any thoughts on the cause of this? Is there are tracing/logging in XP
that would help debug this?

Pete:

It sounds like a DNS name resolution issue.

Some things to try:
1) Leave the PC setup as a DHCP client, but enter your ISP's DNS server
addresses on the PC's NIC properties page.
(also, enter two DNS server addresses if possible)
2) If your router does DNS proxy, disable it
3) Look in Event Viewer for error messages

 

[Quaoar]

Anyone shed any light on this strange problem I am seeing.

My PC is running XP home and is connected to the net using ADSL via
a router. The router is NAT'ed and is my DHCP server.
The PC is configured to have a default route to my router.

A few months back, I started seeing intermittent problems when trying
to access the net. Rebooting the PC always cures the problem but if
I just leave the PC alone, it also starts working again.
When the problem occurs the PC stops sending DNS requests to the DNS
server. Using 'netstat -r' shows that I still have a default route
to the router and there are no other strange routes. This can be
verified as it is still possible to contact the outside world using
the IP address.

I have installed ZoneAlarm (free version) on the PC but even if I
kill this it has no effect.

Any thoughts on the cause of this? Is there are tracing/logging in XP
that would help debug this?

Thanks

Pete

What do you mean by "configured to have a default route to the router"?
No configuration should be required, unless you have specified the
default gateway (router), which, again, is not normally required since
the router is handling DHCP. When the router acquires its lease, it
also acquires DNS addresses. The problem might be in the local HOSTS
file or DNS Cache retaining incorrect dead links or loopbacks.

Refer to this site for info on the DNS Cache:
http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/tune-24.html

Q