DNS issue with my computer

Awhile back I was having trouble connecting to my database and one of my coworkers told me to flush my DNS. Now, I had already knew how to do this but never done it.

I did the following:

• Opened Run
• Type: Ipconfig / Flushdns

It worked, however, ever since then I now have DNS issues usually on boot up. When I would open my browser to google or any other site it displays a DNS error. I have to wait 2 minutes, refresh and then I'm able to surf the internet. The same applies for my skype. I'm unable to call, however, I can still send IMs. This happens every time I start up my PC and occasionally here and there.

This never happened until I flushed my dns. Is there a step I missed? Or is my computer not used to it?

The only steps I've used to flush DNS were provided by our Security MVP Jacee so there's no doubt they are complete and quite a bit more than what you ran:

Copy and paste these lines in Note pad.

@Echo on
pushd\windows\system32\drivers\etc
attrib -h -s -r hosts
echo 127.0.0.1 localhost>HOSTS
attrib +r +h +s hosts
popd
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /flushdns
netsh winsock reset all
netsh int ip reset all
shutdown -r -t 1
del %0

Save as flush.bat to your desktop.
Right click the .bat file and choose to run as Administrator. Your computer will reboot itself.

Hi There

I see that you have flush dns.. Who will register it??

Please try ipconfig /registerdns ( make sure use elevated cmd )

Cheers

gregrocker said:

The only steps I've used to flush DNS were provided by our Security MVP Jacee so there's no doubt they are complete and quite a bit more than what you ran:

Copy and paste these lines in Note pad.

@Echo on
pushd\windows\system32\drivers\etc
attrib -h -s -r hosts
echo 127.0.0.1 localhost>HOSTS
attrib +r +h +s hosts
popd
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /flushdns
netsh winsock reset all
netsh int ip reset all
shutdown -r -t 1
del %0

Save as flush.bat to your desktop.
Right click the .bat file and choose to run as Administrator. Your computer will reboot itself.

I've done accordingly, but the issue still remains.

coolamitraj said:

Hi There

I see that you have flush dns.. Who will register it??

Please try ipconfig /registerdns ( make sure use elevated cmd )

Cheers

I typed this command via Administration CMD and the message regarding the transaction says "May take 15 minutes." I let it set for 3 hours and the same message persists, no cause or effect.


Still not solved!

Error 105 (net::ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED): Unable to resolve the server's DNS address.

Computern33b said:

~~~
This never happened until I flushed my dns. Is there a step I missed? Or is my computer not used to it?

The DNS cache is kept in RAM. It goes away every time you restart the computer. The only reason why you would want to issue the command to flush it via the command prompt is when you don't want to restart your computer. You did no harm in flushing the cache.

This is easy to test:
Surf to several websites
Open a regular command prompt window
Type in ipconfig /displaydns and press enter
That should give you a list of dozens of cached IP addresses.*

Restart the computer and quickly...
Open a regular command prompt window
Type in ipconfig /displaydns and press enter
That should give you a list of very few cached IP addresses.*

*If the service named DNS Client is disabled or not running...
...you should see: Could not display the DNS Resolver Cache.

Your computer can function just fine without the service named DNS Client running. Each request to turn a URL or FQDN into an IP address will just have to go to a DNS server or be resolved some other way (e.g. HOST file).

coolamitraj said:

Hi There

I see that you have flush dns.. Who will register it??

Please try ipconfig /registerdns ( make sure use elevated cmd )

Cheers

Registering the client happens with each reboot (if the default settings are present for the network adapter in use). This registration helps other computers connect to the OP's computer name or alias. The OP is having trouble in the other direction.

Computern33b said:

~~~
It worked, however, ever since then I now have DNS issues usually on boot up. When I would open my browser to google or any other site it displays a DNS error. I have to wait 2 minutes, refresh and then I'm able to surf the internet. The same applies for my skype. I'm unable to call, however, I can still send IMs. This happens every time I start up my PC and occasionally here and there.
~~~

I wonder if Skype caches IMs until they can be sent.

The "occasionally here and there" part is interesting. When this happens to you, can coworkers still surf?

DNS problems should not impact traffic that already knows the IP address of the remote computer... so pinging Google by one of its IP addresses should work (if pings are allowed thru the company firewall). See this post. You could leave that ping running and when you have trouble "occasionally here and there", un-minimize that command prompt window and see if the pings are still happening. [If pinging Google is not allowed, then pick an IP address inside the company firewall.]

As far as not being able to browse to Google right after booting the computer:
Open a regular command prompt window
Type in ipconfig and press enter
Take note of the IP address currently assigned to your computer
Ask a coworker to ping that IP address**
(using the "-t" option to keep the pings going until manually stopped)
Turn your computer off
Turn your computer on
(Not just a restart. Cycle the power.)

**this assumes that the two of you are connected to a network that allows for pings and that your computer is setup to respond to them.

The coworker should see the timeouts stop and should start getting good returns long before you can log on to your computer. Of course, this all rests on the hope that your computer will be assigned the same IP address that it had before the power was cycled.

As soon as the computer boots, quickly check the IP address again and quickly start that batch file that pings one of Google's IP addresses. If the computer was assigned a different IP address, then we just wasted some time :-(

If the computer does not have have an IP address assigned yet, then there might be a problem with your DHCP service.

If you are able to ping Google right away, but not browse to Google via a URL, then DNS is indeed the problem. We can chase that problem down once we are sure you are getting an IP within a reasonable time frame after starting the computer.