Keep repairing network connection

[Mel]

I am on a lan of about 40 pc's all running WINXP pro. We have a
WIN2000 server that is running SQL 2000, and microsoft exchange,
linksys 8 port router, 3 dell switches and are using a cable modem for
cox internet. All has worked fine for the last year or so. Suddenly
several weeks ago we started having trouble with some of the users
accessing the internet. It would be working fine and then just start
giving the unable to show this page screen. Repairing the network
connection from each computer would fix the problem for a little
while. The setup on each of the pc's right now is that the IP address
of the server is the main DNS address and the IP address of our isp
(cox) is the secondary dns address. I called Cox and told them I
needed to know another server address because I was having trouble
with the current one. After putting in the new address it still is
doing the same thing it had been doing. Can anyone help me with this?

 

[allan grossman [mvp]]

Hi, Mel -

Outside of standing up your own authoritative nameserver
and doing your own DNS there's not gonna be a whole lot
you can do - unless you like hollering at your ISP ;-)

What's happening here is the client workstation's DNS
Client service is marking your secondary DNS server as
unavailable because it's not responding to requests in a
timeframe that Windows XP thinks is appropriate.

Changing the DNS timeout might help a little - look at
this KB article -

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=314053

Here's the key to look at:

LmhostsTimeout
Key: Netbt\Parameters
Value Type: REG_DWORD - Time in milliseconds
Valid Range: 1000 - 0xFFFFFFFF
Default: 6000 (6 seconds)
Description: This parameter specifies the timeout value
for LMHOSTS and DNS name queries. The timer has a
granularity of the timeout value, so the actual timeout
could be as much as twice the value.

Hope this helps - but I'd be hollering at my ISP about
slow DNS anyway, I think ;-)

Good luck -

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Hi -

This can occur due to DNS misconfiguration. All servers and workstations
should specify *only* the internal AD-integrated DNS server's IP address in
their network settings. The AD-integrated DNS server should be set up with
forwarders to your ISP's DNS servers for external resolution. See
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;300202 for more
info.