Windows 7 clients intermittently unable to resolve host name of server

[Squelchy]

We have 2 x Server 2008 R2 domain controllers and 120+ Windows 7 x64 clients.
We have a print server which runs Server 2008 R2. We have several other servers which also run Server 2008 R2.
An issue occurs intermittently and apparently at random, whereby a client will be unable to resolve the host/computer name of the print server.
When the issue occurs, we have confirmed the following:
- The client has a valid IP address.
- The client’s DNS server addresses are correct.
- The client can ping the IP address of the print server.
- The client can resolve the IP address of the print server by using nslookup and the server’s FQDN.
- The client cannot resolve the IP address of the print server by using nslookup and the host/computer name of the print server.
- The issue can occur regardless of which domain controller the client used to log on.
- When the output of ‘ipconfig /displaydns’ is printed to a text file, many of the other servers in our domain are present in the DNS cache but the print server is not.
- After the ‘ipconfig /flushdns’ command is executed, the client can resolve the host/computer name of the print server immediately.
If anyone has any thoughts on the cause of this issue and how to resolve it, I would be very grateful.

 

[2xg]

Hi Squelchy,

How many computers are having this issue? From your statement below, I see one.

whereby a client will be unable to resolve the host/computer name of the print server.

Have you tried updating the NIC's driver?

What if you are logged on as a different User from that PC, are you able to replicate the issue?

 

[Squelchy]

Just to provide closure for anyone out there who is interested.

I found an old DNS record for a redundant server, which was configured with the same IP address as our print server. I've deleted the old record with the conflicting IP address so this should resolve the issue.

What is confusing is that the old DNS record was created in the year 2010, our clients have been running Windows 7 for well over a year, yet our clients have only been exhibiting the problem over the past 3 months or so.