Slow browsing - hosts file problem - security patch?

[twig]

A load of our XP Pro PCs suddenly stopped browsing the
domain--extremely slow. Other XPs and win98+2000 OK. The
hosts file with server ip is used in all PCs to speed
browsing and had worked fine for months. Affected PCs
suddenly can not ping server by name and an unknown
external network address is reported as the ping target.
Other identically configure XPs are ok.
Lookup to the hosts file seems to have been disabled or
captured. Current antivirus and spyware scans show no
problems. Is there a recent security patch in XP that
disables hosts access?
Solved the problem for these PCs by reconfiguring DNS on
server for forwarding and pointing client DNS to the
server--which should have been the original setup.
However, there are a lot of sites and clients with the old
configuration. Is use of the hosts file now unavailable in
XP?

 

[Ron Lowe]

A load of our XP Pro PCs suddenly stopped browsing the
domain--extremely slow. Other XPs and win98+2000 OK. The
hosts file with server ip is used in all PCs to speed
browsing and had worked fine for months. Affected PCs
suddenly can not ping server by name and an unknown
external network address is reported as the ping target.
Other identically configure XPs are ok.
Lookup to the hosts file seems to have been disabled or
captured. Current antivirus and spyware scans show no
problems. Is there a recent security patch in XP that
disables hosts access?
Solved the problem for these PCs by reconfiguring DNS on
server for forwarding and pointing client DNS to the
server--which should have been the original setup.
However, there are a lot of sites and clients with the old
configuration. Is use of the hosts file now unavailable in
XP?

No, HOSTS file should still work for Host Name resolution.

HOWEVER, a hosts file is not good enough for the domain.
It only provides A-Record ( host ) functionality.

For a domain member to find domain resources, it needs to be able to query
DNS for SRV records, something that can't be done with a hosts file.

I'm surprised it ever worked satisfactorily before.

You have it properly configured ow, by the sounds of it.

 

[dan]

-----Original Message-----
A load of our XP Pro PCs suddenly stopped browsing the
domain--extremely slow. Other XPs and win98+2000 OK. The
hosts file with server ip is used in all PCs to speed
browsing and had worked fine for months. Affected PCs
suddenly can not ping server by name and an unknown
external network address is reported as the ping target.
Other identically configure XPs are ok.
Lookup to the hosts file seems to have been disabled or
captured. Current antivirus and spyware scans show no
problems. Is there a recent security patch in XP that
disables hosts access?
Solved the problem for these PCs by reconfiguring DNS on
server for forwarding and pointing client DNS to the
server--which should have been the original setup.
However, there are a lot of sites and clients with the old
configuration. Is use of the hosts file now unavailable in
XP?
.

 

[Option^Explicit]

Host file editor as well as reset to default, whether you have one or not.
http://members.shaw.ca/techcd/VB_Projects/HostsFileReader.exe