Hi Chuck - thanks for coming back.
The reason I was pinging Internet servers is that I was finding that I
could neither send nor receive e-mails from either of the client PCs.
POP and SMTP settings were all OK (exactly as on the host machine), but
I was getting "server name you specified cannot be found" whenever
I tried to connect from the clients.
Then, as part of my diagnostic procedure, I found I couldn't ping
websites by name from the client machines.
I solved my "e-mail access from the clients" by pinging the POP and
SMTP servers by name from the host, noting down the IP addresses, and
substituting these for the normal POP and SMTP server details in my
clients' e-mail program.
But that still left me wanting to know a) why I couldn't ping by name
from the clients, and b) how I could correct the setting.
You've made several interesting comments / suggestions, for which
I'm grateful. Could I perhaps ask for a little further clarification?
Re:
1) BACK-COMPUTER also shows IPX/SPX ("\Device\NwlnkNb"), which is
unnecessary
2) Three connections specify 192.168.0.1 as the DNS server (relay).
Depending upon how the (router?) is setup, that may or may not work
well. For that, we need to know what servers it's relaying the
requests to.
3) ...one connection uses two servers directly ("194.168.8.100" /
"194.168.4.100"). This discrepancy could cause a variation.
4) FRONT-COMPUTER2 has IPV6 ("Teredo Tunneling"). I've known for that
to cause various problems, generally with local connectivity.
... my question would be, how / where do I address these? Other than
setting 192.168.0.1 as Preferred DNS Servers on all three machines, I
don't think I've had any hand in configuring any of the others.
Thanks for your time and trouble. It is much appreciated, but I'm on
a rather steep learning curve!
Trevor,
IPX/SPX (aka NwlnkNb) and IPV6 (aka Teredo Tunneling) are network components
that can cause problems with local networking (what you see in My Network Places
/ Network Neighbourhood). Most small LANs use Server Message Blocks (aka SMBs)
for name resolution. If some computers have excessive network components like
IPX/SPX or IPV6, and others don't have those components, it's like tourists in a
foreign land that don't speak the language. SMBs get lost, and name resolution
fails.
<
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/07/windows-networking.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/07/windows-networking.html
From looking at the ipconfig logs, it appears that the NAT router (192.168.0.1)
is seen by several computers as the DNS server. The NAT router, though, has to
get the DNS information from a dedicated DNS server - it only relays DNS
requests. So your router has to have the addresses of the actual DNS servers,
probably 194.168.8.100 ("cache2.ntli.net" in Luton, UK) / 194.168.4.100
("cache1.ntli.net" somewhere in the UK).
Even if the router does use the same upstream servers, though, it could
introduce variances in the DNS process, so it's best of you setup all computers
the same. Pick one - just be consistent.
<
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/03/dns-server-settings-on-your-computer.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/03/dns-server-settings-on-your-computer.html