One Computer on Network Can’t Use DNS…
November 27th, 2008 by steveI have a problem.
I have a DD-WRT router that’s served me for years — and continues to serve me well. It connects to four PCs wirelessly and one or two wired. All the computers that connect through this router can surf the web except the one in the secretary’s office. Two weeks ago that computer suddenly could not surf the web or mail servers.
The secretary’s computer can connect to the router. When you give it the router page, it can load the router setup page in firefox. It can even connect to google if you tell it to go to google’s IP instead of google’s domain name. But it cannot connect if you give it any domain name. Obviously it’s not picking up the DNS info.
The Internet Protocol properties (TCP/IP) are set to obtain the IP address automatically. I have changed them to a static IP with the gateway and DNS server set appropriately as follows:
IP set to 192.168.1.98
Subnet Mask set to 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway set to 192.168.2.1 (the router)
Preferred DNS set to 192.168.2.1
(I originally typed this wrong.)
I know the above setting is correct because my office PC has a static address and it works with that setting.
But the secretary’s computer consistently cannot pick up the DNS from the server. All other computers on the network (wired or wireless, static IP or assigned) use the DNS without any problem.
I have tried turning off the firewall (Norton) and making sure Windows firewall is disabled. It still didn’t work.
Someone told me to replace the card. I pulled the wireless card out and used the network port on the motherboard. Same result.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.
November 27th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Try setting the DNS on that computer to the real nameservers from your ISP and not your router. That should get it to work, but it’s not telling us what happened.
November 28th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
That is the exact work around I would suggest you try, i.e. get the IP’s of the ISP’s nameservers and use them. But I can’t think of what would prevent it from using the router as a nameserver.
November 28th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Something I didn’t ask was what is the OS of that computer? If it’s XP or 2000 I would run DialAfix http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Dial-a-fix-Download-27328.html and Winsockfix http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Network-Tweak/WinSockFix.shtml and see if that fixes it. Run the Winsockfix first.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:40 pm
OK — I have tried the following:
1. I used the DNS servers provided by my dsl provider indicated here:
http://kb.earthlink.net/case.asp?article=187117 No dice.
2. I ran WinsockFIX. No dice.
3. I ran dial-a-fix, but didn’t see the area that addresses networking problems, specifically.
Any other thoughts?
December 1st, 2008 at 4:22 pm
You got me. Have you tried a different ethernet cable? Is this the cable that you ordered a couple weeks ago? That could be the issue, but I’m just guessing… Plus now we are getting into the $50/hr territory! Kidding!
December 1st, 2008 at 4:28 pm
I don’t think it’s the card or cable. I removed the wireless card in the machine and am using the wired port. The cable is new. It works to get into the router and to surf the web via IP. It’s very strange.
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:46 pm
I can’t think of anything that would cause that. But I do know what the company tech guys would suggest now. They would says slick it, (back up all data, reinstall the os, reinstall the programs, reload all the data files).
December 7th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Well – I did a format and reinstall. Fixed it.
Not sure what the cause was. If you know, don’t tell me now. It will just make me mad.