DNS server isn't responding

Can anyone shed any light on this for me please ?

I've been having drop outs in service for a couple of months now, usually only for a few minutes at a time but at least 1/2 dozen times a day.
ISP says nothing wrong at their end.

So far I've had the lines checked and installed a new modem
(Belkin F5D8636-4 v1001).
Worked perfectly for about a week.

The last couple of days it's been dropping out again, not as often but for longer periods of time.
Network diagnostics says "DNS server isn't responding".

First time it happened I reset the modem through the gateway page and it was ok.
Could have been coincidence 'cause the next time doing that didn't change anything, it just came back by itself about 20 minutes later.

First few times it dropped out the internet light on the modem was flashing orange instead of solid blue.
When it happened tonight the light on the modem stayed blue but I still had no internet access and coudn't even get to the gateway page.
Used the reset button on the modem and got access again.

Thought I'd see if anyone had any suggestions on how to deal with this before it drops out again.

Not sure if you need this info but I've attached the ipconfig /all for when it
wouldn't connect and a second one for when it came back.

Thanks.

 

Ok. So lets map out your setup. Are you using a router of any kind?

Windows XP/Vista/7 ??

 

Sorry, should have given you more info to start with.

Modem / Router is a Belkin F5D8636-4 v1001 wired to main PC.
2 other PCs and 1 or 2 laptops accessing wirelessly through a home network
(not all at the same time).

The only other device that's on the network is a Brother DCP-375CW printer / scanner.
Wired to the main PC and accessed by the other 2 through the network.

Main PC:
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name SALLY-PC
System Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model P55-USB3
System Type X86-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 760 @ 2.80GHz, 2794 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Award Software International, Inc. F5, 28/04/2010
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7600.16385"
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 3.50 GB
Available Physical Memory 2.48 GB
Total Virtual Memory 6.99 GB
Available Virtual Memory 5.74 GB
Page File Space 3.50 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys


Thanks.

 

Are the other PCs & Laptops losing connection the same as your computer?

 

Yeah, if the PCs are all being used they all drop out if the connection goes.
However, it has also happened when it's just the main PC connected.

There's no pattern to when the drop outs occur.

 

I have an idea.

Can you get into the settings of the modem/router? Can you change the IP range of the LAN side of the router? Change the range you are using to 192.168.22.X. So the router would be 192.168.22.1 and the DHCP range would be something between .2 and .254 but at least 4 numbers large for your three attached devices at the moment, i like to keep an extra incase you drop off the router and it doesn't release the old number right away. Say you made your DHCP range .3 - .6. The subnet the same and the gateway is 192.168.22.1

I've had computers drop for various reasons but to have a whole network drop randomly and briefly I chased for over a week the second time, having not found it the first time. No one is allowed to plug into the network without at least telling me, shooting me an email, something. Someone decided to use a 4 ethernet port print server as a switch when they suddenly needed an extra connection and couldn't be bothered to ask. The print server had a default ip that was the same as the firewall (corporate firewall being the route out to the internet). Every so often the whole network would point to the print server instead of the firewall for no reason. Internet would disappear. I could still ping the IP of the firewall but not connect to it. Firewall management company could ping, connect and get traffic back and forth across the firewall to and from the net remotely just fine. They showed us to be up 100% of the time. I was very frustrated. I'll never setup a network in a common IP range again.

So the reason I asked you to change your IP range is so that you are our of the range of any possible device default or if something got set to a static IP of the gateway by accident or a DCHP server's range is starting at 192.168.2.1 by accident.

 

sorry for all of those typos, did changing the range sort out the issue?

 

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. :-o

Just to be awkward there haven't been any further drop outs since I asked for help on here.

I was waiting to see if it happened again before making any changes.
I've copied your last post with the instructions so I'm good to go if it drops out again.
I figured that way I would know for sure that it was those settings causing the problem.

 

:clap
Take those fixes any way they come!