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DNS Question

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I hv a WIN NT4 Server acting as DNS Server. User complaint cannot ping a domain name. Ping IP address no problem. Checked DNS and saw there is record for the domain name. After I ping -a , everything back to ok. But after a few days, same thing might happen. Anyone has any idea? Thanks

13 replies

by patrickk

You Can add the host name in Win95/98 in

c:\windows-hosts

just edit the file 'hosts

example:
IP Host name
127.0.0.1 localhost

by patrickk

You Can add the host name in Win95/98 in

c:\windows-hosts

just edit the file 'hosts

example:
IP Host name
127.0.0.1 localhost

by inspectorclave

Implement a HOSTS file. Create a text file with the following info:

w.x.y.z

where w.x.y.z is the ip address of the server and is the domain name of the server (ex: server.com)

Save the file as HOSTS without an extension. Save the file in the c:\windows directory for use on a 95/98 workstation or in the c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc directory on an NT workstation.

by aaron v

In addition to DNS, consider using WINS internally for Name Resolution. If the error is users cannot ping internally, that is a very different problem than not being able to ping external systems.
If you are having intermittant external resolution, check that your internal DNS server is forwarding DNS requests appropriately.
Also, for NT/Win2k, use c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts for the hosts file.

by clpadmin

Sounds like either the DNS server entries are not configured correctly, or your clients are not configured correctly to use the DNS server. The reason why, when you use ping -a option, everything is okay until after a few days is because the -a option resolves the ip address you give it to host names from the workstation you are pinging at. That is, the information is not gotten from the DNS server. Now this information is kept in the local workstations cache. This is why everything seems normal after you use the ping -a. But when the cache entry expires (after a few days), you can no longer ping by its domain name.

by otura

In order to troubleshoot if this is a server or client problem try pinging the name without the -a option from diferent clients.

If you conclude it's a client problem try out reconfiguring it. (Remember that local settings for TCP/IP override theDHCP settings).

If it's a server problem check out the DNS database. I also advice you uppon setting up a WINS server and enabling WINS resolution for Windows client and DNS-WINS linking, in order to dinamically update DNS.

I hope this helps... byx

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