DNS client service repeatedly stopping and starting every 20 mins

Btlchrst · 30 Dec 2010

Hi, first of all sorry if this is the wrong forum. I'm not sure if this is any cause for concern in any way, other than me just being paranoid, but in the past week (being someone who checks their even viewer probably a little too much) I noticed my DNS client service would randomly stop, start again a few minutes later then exactly 20 minutes from then stop again. But sometimes it will seem to stay running for exactly 40 minutes, then stop again, start and go back to stopping every 20 minutes several times then repeat. In addition wmiprvse.exe running under the network profile will also stop when this occurs.

It's kind of strange as it doesn't constantly happen and started recently at a completely random time, and sometimes won't start doing it until hours after my computer has been on, whereas sometimes it just immediately starts doing this. In truth if I didn't constantly monitor things for no reason I probably wouldn't notice anything wrong at all, it's only when I foolishly decided to check my routers firewall log to see that IP's from China, Taiwan and Thailand were being blocked by DoS protection often around the time this service stops, that I became overly paranoid.

I would hope these things have no relation and it's just coincidence that I see these entries in my routers firewall log around the time this happens, as neither my computers firewall or antivirus's firewall have ever blocked anything. I've read that firewalls block these port scanners and other traffic all the time, but it's hard for me to tell how often it happens as my routers firewall log is constantly flooded with my ISP's IP thinking it's trying to DoS me and doesn't have a history I can check to see if it really is just coincidence that these other Asian IP's are being blocked around that time because it's instantly erased by false positives.

I'd really appreciate some clarification on this and if it's anything to be concerned about.

Btlchrst · 31 Dec 2010

Anyone? security paranoia aside; what could cause my dns client service to stop every 20 minutes then a few minutes later start again then 20 minutes from then stop again? I run very few third party programs in the background when doing nothing, especially ones that connect with the internet, I believe all I have is steam, my antivirus which checks for updates once a day, and windows updates which occasionally checks for updates. The only other things I really do on my computer is normal internet browsing, world of warcraft and I run ventrilo when playing usually. However, I don't think these things are related to the problem because I've noticed it happening without running either of these programs. I notice no problems at all with my internet connection while running WoW or ventrilo when it does this though.

As I said, I noticed my wmiprvse.exe under the network profile also stops when this first occurs and doesn't come back on until I restart my router and the service, and doesn't stop again until the dns client service starts stopping again.

I just want to toss this aside as nothing, which it probably is, but my mind just won't seem to let it go and I hate not being able to figure something out before forgetting about it.

logicearth · 31 Dec 2010

The DNS Client merely manages the DNS Cache. I couldn't tell you why it would be restarting every 20 minutes or so but it is not a security threat. Or anything that would point to a security threat.

Btlchrst · 31 Dec 2010

logicearth said:

The DNS Client merely manages the DNS Cache. I couldn't tell you why it would be restarting every 20 minutes or so but it is not a security threat. Or anything that would point to a security threat.

Thanks. That's good to know.

I still wish I knew why it was restarting at a scheduled time, but as long as it poses no threat and doesn't seem to affect anything I suppose there's nothing to worry about.