How to troubleshoot DNS Resolution problem?

What is DNS?

DNS is useful for several reasons. Most well known is it makes it possible to attach domain names (like yahoo.com) to hard-to-remember IP addresses (216.109.112.135). We take advantage of this just be remembering URLs and e-mails addresses instead of 4 octets.

How to identify if the workstation is not resolving DNS addresses?

• Go to “Start” then “Run”, and type CMD
• When you get to the DOS prompt, type PING and the Domain Name (ping yahoo.com)
• Then PING the IP address of the Domain Name (ping 216.109.112.135)
• If you receive “Ping request could not find host yahoo.com. Please check the name and try again.” when pinging the Domain Name and you receive 4 “Replies” when pinging the IP, the workstation is not able to resolve DNS

Resolution #1 - Configure the workstation to use alternate DNS servers

• Go to the Control Panel of the workstation
• Then Network Settings
• Choose the network connection that is having the DNS issue
• Go to the adapter’s TCP/IP properties
• Statically set the DNS Servers to address provided by your ISP (or 4.2.2.2 or 4.2.2.3 or use other public DNS service like OpenDNS)

Resolution #2 - Configure the router to use alternate DNS servers

• Access the router web configuration
• Go to Basic Settings
• Select “Use these DNS Servers”
• Enter the DNS addresses given by your ISP (or 4.2.2.2 or 4.2.2.3 or use other public DNS service like OpenDNS)
• Click Apply
  

N101766.asp Jun.6, 2008