How to solve DNS problems?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by ForevaYoung, Dec 31, 2007.

  1. ForevaYoung

    ForevaYoung Private E-2

    When I leave my computer on stand-by overnight the next morning I can't use my internet explorer. It says there is DNS problem. The same goes for my MSN 8. What is DNS and how to solve it?

    One solution suggested to me was to start>run>and type "ipconfig -renew" after that a black window appeared and disappeared just as quickly is that suppose to happen? Either way that did not help solve the DNS issues.
     
  2. cat5e

    cat5e MajorGeek

    It impossible t answer without a description of you Internet connection, and general Network setting.
     
  3. chookers

    chookers Staff Sergeant

    I know this is a long reply but don't panic! :) I'm sure you'll cope fine with what I've written and will have a better understanding of what's happening, whether or not this solves your problem. :wave

    Yes, that was quite normal. What you were doing, was telling your computer to renew its' IP address. The way you did it, caused the black window to appear briefly and disappear. The black window was the MS-DOS window where you can type commands to be carried out. If you only want to send one command and don't need to look at the results of that command, that's a quick way of doing it. If however, you need to see the results or want to send more than one command, it's easier to open the MS-DOS window and then type commands into it. Do this by Start - Run - cmd and then press OK. (I'm assuming you are on 2000, XP or Vista. For 98SE and earlier, you would type command instead of cmd. Upper case or lower case is fine.) Close the window by clicking the X in the top right corner or by typing exit and then pressing the enter key. After typing in a command, press the enter key on your keyboard.

    You say it didn't solve the DNS problems but I'm not sure whether you mean that this didn't get you up and running right there and then or if it hasn't stopped this problem from recurring after standby. If it got you up and running right then but keeps recurring after standby and normally only after standby, I would make a guess that the computer is waking up and not asking for an IP address, just picking its' own and probably not picking a suitable one. (If that's the case, I would hazard a guess that you would find your computer has an IP address starting 169.254.x.x and that 255.255.0.0 would be the subnet mask.) The computer has to have an IP address that belongs to the same group as whatever is connecting it to the internet. It's a bit like saying they have to be in the same street to be able to use the same road. DNS stands for Domain Name Server and a DNS server is responsible for handing out IP addresses and other details that can be used by a group member.

    Immediately after resuming from standby, open the MS-DOS prompt (Start - run - cmd) and type ipconfig and then press enter. Take note of what's there. Next, type ipconfig/renew (or ipconfig/renew_all if you have to type command to open MS-DOS window). See if the IP address and subnet mask have changed. If the details changed, the subnet mask will most likely be 255.255.255.0 and you should have working internet after that.

    If using one of the ip renew commands always sorts you out, then the problem is simply that the computer just grabs a likely looking IP address instead of asking for one from wherever it should be asking - perhaps a broadband modem? From time to time, the computer does ask for an address and would then be given a new one that will give you internet access. So if you leave your computer alone for a while after resuming from standby, it should regain internet access without you doing anything.

    If this doesn't match the problem, post back with details of your operating system, how you connect to the internet and details of any other equipment you are using, such as modem model details. Also, run the ipconfig command at a time when you don't have access and again when you do have access and post both lots of details. To make it easy to get those details to post, type ipconfig >> c:\ip.txt on both occasions and you will find a text file on your c: drive called ip.txt with all the details. (Be warned that if you use only one '>' instead of two, the file gets overwritten and you lose the details you had.) Because this file will keep growing every time you run the command, make sure you remember what was happening each time you ran the command. It's quite safe to open this file and add the details and then close it in between each time you run the command. Put your details at the end of the file if that's easier than working out where to put them.
     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2008

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