DNS server stops responding almost every night

[Shub Niggurath]

Almost every night my DNS server goes out sometimes for a few minutes to a full 8 or so hours, when I try to troubleshoot my connect it says "The DNS server has stopped responding" without any solutions. I always try to type in cmd "ipconfig /flushdns" but this rarely works, I continuously try to restart the router and even take out all individual Ethernet cables to stop it but alas to no outcome. This started happening a few months after I got my broadband, it hasn't stopped since.

It doesn't seem to hold any relevance to what I browse when it cuts out either, I checked into that and it happens regardless of what I'm doing. I've also tried custom DNS servers such as Google, but it goes out even when I set them myself.

EDIT: here's my IP config:

Windows IP Configuration

   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Chris
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller #2
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 74-D4-35-61-AB-D8
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::a840:c3a2:bba5:6f1d%13(Preferred)
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Friday, 19 June 2015 12:15:36 AM
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, 20 June 2015 12:15:36 AM
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 359978037
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1A-AA-E6-C9-BC-5F-F4-FB-54-FF

   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
                                       0.0.0.0
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

 

[GokAy]

Do you have 2nd DNS IP set as 0.0.0.0 in router DHCP? Is it possible to delete that if so?

 

[Shub Niggurath]

Yes and to both.

 

[GokAy]

Do you have a phone or another PC in house that you can test when DNS goes out?

Try run in cmd: netsh winsock reset

 

[Champion]

Set your system a static IP address, and change the DNS addresses to:

Default: 8.8.8.8
Alternate: 8.8.4.4

 

[Shub Niggurath]

Do you have a phone or another PC in house that you can test when DNS goes out?

Try run in cmd: netsh winsock reset

3 PCs and one phone to try them on, all of them are affected. I will try that command the next time it goes out.

Set your system a static IP address, and change the DNS addresses to:

Default: 8.8.8.8
Alternate: 8.8.4.4

Let us know if this helps

Yeah I've already tried Google's DNS both in network settings and in the very router itself, it doesn't change a thing.

 

[GokAy]

If this has been affecting all devices then either your router, modem (can be one combined device) or your ISP. So don't bother running the command I gave earlier.

Try factory resetting router/modem (both if different devices), check manual on how to do it.

Then go to https://zenmate.com/signup/ with firefox or chrome (or any browser supported, IE doesn't work) and install the add-on. It is real easy to install and get it working (1-click stuff) and no need to register.

Now, I am not sure if you can connect to zenmate while experiencing the issue, so open that browser, connect to VPN. Continue using another browser or another PC. Check back with zenmate browser when dns starts to act up again.

Report back, Next would be to contact ISP.

 

[UsernameIssues]

As GokAy stated, the issue would seem to be at the router/modem or ISP level. Do you have a neighbor that uses the same ISP? If so, ask them if they lose DNS.

I'm going to suggest using Ping to gather some info for us.

On any Windows computer on your network, temporarily disable the Windows service named DNS Client.

Without that service running, apps should ask the DNS provider to resolve text based addresses each time you attempt to access the address. i.e. each time that you start to ping google.com, the ping app should ask the DNS provider what the IP address is for google.com.

Make a batch file that pings google.com:
...make a new text file
...if need be, make the TXT file extension show
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/10570-file-extensions-hide-show.html
...copy/paste/save the code below into that TXT file
...change the file extension to BAT.

title: Ping Google
cd\
:start
ping -4 google.com
timeout 5
goto start

You can start that batch file and leave it running.
It will repeatedly ask DNS to resolve google.com.

When some device on your network indicates that DNS has stopped working, check the command prompt window to see if ping is unable to resolve google.com.


Make another batch file that pings an IP address.

title: Ping IP
cd\
:start
ping -4 8.8.8.8
timeout 5
goto start

That ping loop does not depend on DNS and it should tell you if you have lost all connectivity to the Internet.

 

[GokAy]

UsernameIssues, how is your batch different then running ping with -t switch? Not home so can't test.

Ping -t google.com

And timeout is seconds?

 

[UsernameIssues]

DNS resolution only happens when you start the ping app.

If I started ping google.com -t at 1pm and let it run all night, it would never tell me if/when DNS failed. Once a given Ping process knows the IP address for google.com, it reuses that IP address for each subsequent ping. I have to let Ping end = then start a new Ping process to cause a new DNS query.



For the batch file that pings 8.8.8.8, I did not need a loop. It could have been just ping 8.8.8.8 -t.


Yes - the timeout (delay) is in seconds.

edit:
Fortunately, Ping tolerates my habit of putting most of my switches on the end of the command line.

I usually use this:
ping -4 google.com -t -w 1
or on slow networks, this:
ping -4 google.com -t -w 7000
The 1 millisecond timeout will default to a minimum of 1000.
I see no reason to type out 1000