Halting Negative Entries in CACHE

Please forgive me, but to follow the directions below, can someone please tell me where exactly it is that I am needing to "go" in #1 when it says; "Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ Dnscache\Parameters" ?? (or alternately, how to get into my Registry - which is a place I have always AVOIDED, other than "cleaning" it with CCleaner, etc.)?

Thanks in advance ...

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"Directions"

If you wish to stop XP from placing negative entries into cache, you can make this change in your registry.

1. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ Dnscache\Parameters
2. Build a new DWORD value called NegativeCacheTime and give it a value of 0

I believe the default time is 5 minutes. I always use zero for my default time, but I think the value above is in seconds. So if you only want to save them for 1 minute, then I am assuming you would change that value to 60.

 

Ok, thanks.

I've been having trouble with a "Local Area Connection" icon popping-up in the lower-right corner of the screen (taskbar - near the clock), and claiming that it is "Acquiring Network Address" (it's not present at the moment for me to verify that exact wording, but I believe that is what it states). While it is present, it has what appear (to me) to be two yellow or gold "balls" switching to and fro as if it is "Searching" ("Acquiring"). When I attempt to "Repair" the connection, I get a message saying it cannot repair due to the "DNS Cache" needing to be cleared. Additionally, I am having trouble with bottlenecks, slow-downs, and many/multiple messages about web-pages 'timing-out' upon my trying to access them - in addition to the aforementioned icon.

I referred-back to an old post/thread of mine from about a year ago for that specific action, and upon re-reading a link supplied: http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/233/clear_windows_dns_cache/
and I realized that I had really only "solved" half of the problem.

So I believe (?) that I would like to "stop XP from placing negative entries into cache" (permanently).

Thanks Again ...
Glenn
PS I have now followed the instructions in the link, and was supplied with "Guided Help" from Microsoft, and it appears I did all right. The icon is gone (has been removed), and so far, pages are displaying as quickly as ever - as best I can tell).

 

Ok, so I was wrong (once again).

The icon is back in the lower right-hand corner of the taskbar and reads: "Local Area Connection/Speed: 100.0 Mbps/Status:Acquiring Network Address", and I am once again getting "bottlenecks" (?) - and frequent error messages such as this from Firefox:

Network Timeout

The server at www.majorgeeks.com is taking too long to respond.

The requested site did not respond to a connection request and the browser has stopped waiting for a reply.

* Could the server be experiencing high demand or a temporary outage? Try again later.
* Are you unable to browse other sites? Check the computer's network connection.
* Is your computer or network protected by a firewall or proxy? Incorrect settings can interfere with Web browsing.
* Still having trouble? Consult your network administrator or Internet provider for assistance.

I have reset the Zone Alarm FW to all Defaults (in addition to the steps taken/described in my last post in this thread). What else might I try please?

Thanks again and in advance,
g ...