TCP/IP setting

recently, i've noticed i couldn't hit certain sites, like ticketmaster dot com, or dell dot com...a friend had told me to go into my Network Properties, and go to the TCP/IP settings...from there, he told me to select a specific a DNS, which was 4.2.2.2 (some default for verizon?)...from that point on, i was able to hit all the sites...

now my question is, why did i have to do this...and how come i'm not able to obtain ip or dns automatically?

thanks

 

Without a lot more information we(or at least, I) wont be able to give you a specific, definitive answer, but I can take a guess.

The reason that he had you set a DNS server is because the one that your computers configuration defaulted to apparently had some errors with it. It might have had some incorrect information in it or something, which probably would have eventually resolved itself, and depending on the setup you may have been able to fix yourself, but simply using a different DNS server would have(should have, at least) also eliminated your problem, if the DNS was in fact the problem. I'd have to know more about your setup, service provider, etc to be able to really know, I'm just taking a guess. But, considering changing the DNS server solved the issue, it was obviously some sort of problem with the DNS server that you were defaulting to. There isn't really any way to know what it was for sure, I mean, even some modems and routers are capable of DNS I think.

 

thanks for reply...

how come i'm not able to do the obtain autormatically method, wouldn't be basically find a dns for me w/o problems?


i'm on a westell dsl router with verizon...running through switch...this is a setup for my business...thanks

 

More than likely your router is set to function as a DNS server, and your computer will select it as the default DNS server if it were to obtain one automatically. The router probably has incorrectly cached data(matching up the wrong IP address with a particular domain name). There is probably a way to clear it(in which case it would re-obtain the dns information) or disable the DNS function, but I don't know. I did a search for Westell DSL router and found the Westell website, but I wasn't able to find the information I would need to tell you how to do the things that I mentioned. Maybe someone else has a better diagnostic or more information on how to fix your problem... I'm still learning myself.

In the meantime, do you know how to access the routers webpage to change settings? If you do, you could look for something that has to do with DNS. I wouldn't advise changing anything unless you know exactly what your doing, but you can at least be looking.

 

Please remember to tell us your operating system(s).