IP Won't Use HOSTS file

[Ken Barnes]

I have a 2000 workstation that starting this morning will
not use the HOSTS file to resolve names. We are not using
an internal DNS or WINS server. We use the HOSTS file
just for resolving server names on our network. I can not
ping any of the names listed in the hosts file, however, I
can ping the IP address. From the command line I get the
Unknown Host message.

I renamed the HOSTS file to something else and created a
new HOSTS file with only 1 entry. I could not resolve
that entry.

The closest I could come searching through the Knowledge
Base was a problem where names won't resolve after a year
of use. Its' suggestion was to replace the dnsrslvr.dll.
That didn't fix it.

Any ideas?

Ken

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Make sure the hosts file has no extension - it is easy to save it with a
..txt extension. It may help to run netdiag on a problem computer looking for
any failed tests. The dhcp client service also needs to be running. ---
Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;321708

 

[Ken Barnes]

No extensions, and DHCP Client is running. Everything
else IP works fine. It just acts like it's not reading
the HOSTS file. I do appreciate the link to netdiag. I
had almost forgotten about it.

Thanks,
Ken

 

[Steven Umbach]

Ken, there are new trojans going around including this one that modifies tcp/ip
dns settings. --- Steve

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.qhosts.html