Vista networking "issues"

[TheGriffalo]

Right... I'll ignore the incorrect DNS for a mo and we'll come back to it in a bit.

On the bad machine put http://195.225.218.139 in a browser window, it should bring up the PH site. (I'm just double checking firewall issues first)

[evenflow]

Yep can see that on the bad machine

[TheGriffalo]

Good, your network card and router are working, it's DNS that's the primary problem at the mo. Do the following on both machines to get a comparison.

From a command prompt type nslookup and hit enter.

You'll be in a screen where you can type stuff

type

set type=a

and hit enter

then type

www.pistonheads.com

and hit enter

The results should be similar to those pasted below. Don't worry about the error message, I've left it in as it's quite normal and not necessarily indicative of a problem. When you're done type exit to get out of the screen.

C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc>nslookup

• * Can't find server name for address 172.16.250.1: Non-existent domain
• * Default servers are not available

Default Server: UnKnown
Address: 172.16.250.1

> set type=a
> www.pistonheads.com
Server: UnKnown
Address: 172.16.250.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: www.pistonheads.com
Address: 195.225.218.139

>

[evenflow]

On the good machine I get results similar to those that you posted.

On the bad machine, I get DNS request timed out (twice), then Request to UnKnown timed out.

[TheGriffalo]

Are you running any kind of firewall? If so drop it and repeat. To confirm it's inactive you can ping 192.168.1.9 from the good machine.

[evenflow]

Turned off windows firewall and now can ping bad machine from the good one.
nslookup on the bad machine still gives the same result though (DNS request timed out).

Feel free to email me your paypal address if you have one - you're going to need a beer or two after this help I'm sure...

[TheGriffalo]

Nah, don't worry about that.

Try the following.

Go back into nslookup

type

server 167.206.112.3

and hit enter

It'll come back with
default Server: ns3.srv.hcvlny.cv.net
Address: 167.206.112.3

Then type

set type=a

and hit enter

Then type
www.yahoo.com

and hit enter.

You should get a reply similar to
server: ns3.srv.hcvlny.cv.net
address: 167.206.112.3

• ns3.srv.hcvlny.cv.net can't find www.yahoo.com: Query refused

The fact that the query is refused is a good thing. Both machines should be the same.

[evenflow]

TheGriffalo said:

server 167.206.112.3

and hit enter

It'll come back with
default Server: ns3.srv.hcvlny.cv.net
Address: 167.206.112.3

On the bad machine it gives:

DNS request timed out
Default server [167.206.112.3]
Address 167.206.112.3



The good machine sees ns3.srv.hcvlny.cv.net

[TheGriffalo]

Try ipconfig /flushdns from a command prompt. Sounds like your DNS client is stuffed (or blocked)

[evenflow]

I've done ipconfig /flsuhdns which confirms a successful flush of the DNS resolver cache.
Trying the nslookup as before after this gives the same result: Default server [167.206.112.3]

[TheGriffalo]

Your DNS client appears to be stuffed. Now while this isn't the specific problem this update will update the DNS files and may fix it.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929451

You'll have to transfer it across on a memory stick or something.

[evenflow]

Installed that and rebooted. Now have "limited connectivity"

EDIT: This has now disappeared after stopping and restarting the dns cache. Now back to local access only...

Edited by evenflow on Tuesday 5th February 16:20

[TheGriffalo]

Are you on static IP still? It's certainly a DNS issue, just got to figure out why it's still stuffed

When did it stop working? Have you got a recent restore point that you could apply?

[evenflow]

Yes still on static IP (192.168.1.9).
I'll try a system restore.

[simba1]

Can i email you my paypal address. I think i deserve a beer after reading all that . I was contemplating re-installing vista after having connectivity issues early last year and was hoping by now all the bugs will have been ironed out, obviously not. Thanks mate and hope you get it sorted soon.

[evenflow]

System restored back to 25/01/08, way before t1ts up time. Still no joy.
Thanks so much for al your help on this, really is much appreciated.
Just off to check prices of XP on eBay....

[TheGriffalo]

Just check the DNS client service is running and set to automatic startup.... I should have checked that earlier

[evenflow]

TheGriffalo said:

Just check the DNS client service is running and set to automatic startup.... I should have checked that earlier

Client is running and set to auto startup.

[LordGrover]

evenflow said:

System restored back to 25/01/08, way before t1ts up time. Still no joy.
Thanks so much for al your help on this, really is much appreciated.
Just off to check prices of XP on eBay....

You can't give up yet! This is getting interesting - Rob's covered everything I would've come up with plus a bit more ...

[TheGriffalo]

Running out of ideas here.... It seems a lot of people are hitting the problem but there isn't a definitive answer. It could be a patch issue. Do you know when your Vista machine last loaded automatic updates?