Hi Damien,
That's indicative of a name server (DNS) problem. Internally, all TCP/IP
communication is via IP address. "Human readable" names are just for our
benefit. DNS maps the fully qualified domain name (i.e.
www.microsoft.com)
to the IP address.
Try this, all from a command prompt:
ipconfig /all
note your DNS server IP address
nslookup
it should bind to your DNS server. if it doesn't, there's your problem.
if it does, enter
www.microsoft.com at the > prompt. you should get back
one or more IP addresses. type "exit" to exit.
if all that worked, then ping
www.microsoft.com should work. ping <whatever
the IP address was> is functionally equivalent to ping
www.microsoft.com,
since the name gets translated to the IP address before the ping is
attempted.
if name resolution is working (or you know the IP address), then tracert is
useful for tracking down where the problem is occuring.
occasionally, a router can be configured to reject a ping command (greater
security), even tho the web server is up. such as how I've configured my
router. but that's not the case with
www.microsoft.com.
if you have name resolution problems, restart your browser after the
problems are resolved. the browsers (at least IE) aren't smart at detecting
when things are working again, so you have to restart them.
FWIW, I'm having the same problem right now. here's my output:
C:\>ipconfig /all
<stuff deleted>
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network
Connection
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . :
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.254
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.254
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 203.0.178.191
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, 21 April 2004
18:14:21
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, 24 April 2004 18:14:21
C:\>nslookup
Default Server: dns.iinet.net.au
Address: 203.0.178.191
Server: dns.iinet.net.au
Address: 203.0.178.191
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: www2.microsoft.akadns.net
Addresses: 207.46.250.252, 207.46.134.221, 207.46.144.188, 207.46.156.188
207.46.156.252, 207.46.245.156, 207.46.249.252, 207.46.250.222
Aliases:
www.microsoft.com,
www.microsoft.akadns.net
OK, so DNS is working...
C:\>ping
www.microsoft.com
Pinging www2.microsoft.akadns.net [207.46.134.221] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 207.46.134.221:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),
OK, so even tho ping is failing, DNS is working since it resolved to the IP
address...
C:\>ping 207.46.134.221
Pinging 207.46.134.221 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 207.46.134.221:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),
C:\>tracert
www.microsoft.com
Tracing route to www2.microsoft.akadns.net [207.46.245.92]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 210 ms 520 ms 63 ms 203.55.231.88
2 30 ms 29 ms 32 ms 203.55.231.19
3 32 ms 31 ms 31 ms 203.55.231.28
4 31 ms 33 ms 31 ms GE-4-1-0.ar1.syd1.gblx.net [203.192.167.141]
5 33 ms 34 ms 34 ms ge0-0-0-1000M.cr2.SYD1.gblx.net
[203.192.136.85]
6 219 ms 228 ms 229 ms pos8-0-622M.cr1.SEA1.gblx.net
[203.192.128.182]
7 222 ms 227 ms 227 ms so0-0-0-2488M.ar4.SEA1.gblx.net
[67.17.71.206]
8 221 ms 220 ms 223 ms MSN-Hot-Mail-2.ge-4-0-0.br2.SEA1.gblx.net
[64.208.170.206]
9 224 ms 225 ms 225 ms 207.46.40.129
10 242 ms 223 ms 234 ms 207.46.36.214
11 237 ms 251 ms 248 ms 207.46.155.13
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.
Trace complete.
OK, so something's broken in the expected hop after 207.46.155.13.
Hope this helps...
Scott
Damien said:
I'm using the tracert command - it works fine with an IP address, but when
I try using it with a URL,
www.microsoft.com I get the error "Unable to
resolve target system name
www.microsoft.com.
