Topic: No name resolution with static IP on client

[Rob]

Hi

Suddenly!  Couldn't access websites with browser using domain names but could with IP numbers (including local site,server-manager, etc.) Solved it by puting clients back on dhcp. Even a static IP inside the dhcp scope doesn't work. I would really like to understand whats going on here. Any thoughts??

TIA  Rob

[Ed Form]

Rob wrote:
>
> Suddenly!  Couldn't access websites with browser using domain
> names but could with IP numbers (including local
> site,server-manager, etc.) Solved it by puting clients back
> on dhcp. Even a static IP inside the dhcp scope doesn't work.
> I would really like to understand whats going on here. Any
> thoughts??

There may be an E-smith explanation but this is actually quite a common problem in networked Windows 95/98 clients. If you don't allow them to pick up the gateway address from DHCP they cannot access it, even though youy have entered the gateway address by hand. It's so prevalent that I've actually used it to separate between workstations permitted to access the internet and those that aren't.

I've had thos problem on system with DHCP provided by E--smith, Xyxel ISDN routers, EDIMax internet gateway servers, and several others. Windows isn't supposed to act like this, and often it doesn't, but when it does occur it can be a beggar to solve. If you actually find a cause I'd like to hear it.

Ed Form

[Rob]

Ed Form wrote:

>
> There may be an E-smith explanation but this is actually
> quite a common problem in networked Windows 95/98 clients. If
> you don't allow them to pick up the gateway address from DHCP
> they cannot access it, even though youy have entered the
> gateway address by hand. It's so prevalent that I've actually
> used it to separate between workstations permitted to access
> the internet and those that aren't.

After getting the same result on win2k i tried entering the DNS server address for my ISP (I know this seems obvious but I have never had to do it before with SME - in fact I was mildly suprised first time i set it up that i didn't need to - I assumed it was because of the /home/dns/var/named/named.ca file) and now I can connect.

I will see what happens when i try a clean install.

[scotty]

did you give the clients a gateway and dns server??

otherwise it aint gonna work..

"> quite a common problem in networked Windows 95/98 clients. If
> you don't allow them to pick up the gateway address from DHCP
> they cannot access it"

?????????????????????

Never heard of that!!!!And I cant believe it either!!!

[Ed Form]

scotty wrote:

> > quite a common problem in networked Windows 95/98 clients.
> > If you don't allow them to pick up the gateway address from DHCP
> > they cannot access it"
>
> ?????????????????????
>
> Never heard of that!!!!And I cant believe it either!!!

Note first that I didn't say it was the norm, I said it was quite a common problem. I believe it's a bug. Rob's message about explicitly stating the DNS server address of his ISP as a cure would seem to indicate that, under certain conditions, the usually automatic hook to DNS through the gateway address doesn't work.

Join me in Stowmarket, Suffolk, England tomorrow, or any day soon, and I'll show the problem to you. In a system there, consisting of 14 similar Windows 98SE2.5 client machines, all set up the same way, the machines to which I give static IP addresses cannot contact the net through the SQUID install on the server. As soon as I change any one of those machines to pickup it's IP address from the DHCP server it can find the net and browse to its heart's content.

I've spent a long time in the MS knowledge base, and asking around the Windows discussion groups, and no one has ever supplied an answer. I've seen similar problems at several sites where the DHCP servers range from NT servers to £50, 1-port routers. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to the occurrence, it just appears on some installs. I'm may be missing something when I set them up, or it may actually be a Windows configuration bug, but it does occur.

Ed Form

[Andy MacDonald]

I was always under the impression that DHCP gives the DNS configuration as well. If you just set a static IP address on your host, you'll have basic connectivity, but no DNS. If you put the ISP's DNS in as well, you'll be rockin'
It may be naive, but that's how I reasoned that it worked. I've gotten things to work this way.

[Ed Form]

Andy MacDonald wrote:
>
> I was always under the impression that DHCP gives the DNS
> configuration as well. If you just set a static IP address on
> your host, you'll have basic connectivity, but no DNS. If you
> put the ISP's DNS in as well, you'll be rockin'
> It may be naive, but that's how I reasoned that it worked.
> I've gotten things to work this way.

See, I told you I was dumb. I assumed that the pickup-server-details-from-remote-system facilities in TCP/IP properties would have taken care of this. What I don't understand is why it does so soemtimes and not others.

Ed Form

[Rob Wellesley]

Andy MacDonald wrote:
>
> I was always under the impression that DHCP gives the DNS
> configuration as well. If you just set a static IP address on
> your host, you'll have basic connectivity, but no DNS. If you
> put the ISP's DNS in as well, you'll be rockin'
> It may be naive, but that's how I reasoned that it worked.
> I've gotten things to work this way.

Absolutely

However Web on SME works for a local network with no Internet Connection. I lost the name resolution service on my local network. I could connect by IP but not name. because i am internet connected my ISPs DNS  server is supplying the pointer to my WWW. not the local service first. i.e hosts file THEN bind. Problem is the local files all look fine to me.

[NickR]

You might be seeing something that seems to be related, which is the IE "automatically detect proxy" setting (Tools/Internet Options/Connections/LAN Settings)  - is the first box ticked?  This is set on by default, but personally I always turn it off.  I have never seen what you see, & I have a mixture of sites running fixed & DHCP ip addresses - some have both.  On the fixed ip machines, I always set up the gateway & DNS server to be the ip of the SME - I've never needed to point the DNS to the ISP's DNS servers, either on the SME or the workstations.

A better test of DNS services on the w/s is to ping (or even tracert) an external host - I use www.bbc.co.uk as it's pretty much guaranteed to be there...