Have to go to web site twice before it comes up

  • Thread starter Thread starter Victor S.
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V

Victor S.

I have a small business that has a Windows 2000 server (SP4). After this
server has been up for a few hours, Internet Explorer cannot access new web
sites the first time. The user has to refresh the page before the web site
comes up. However, once this is done for the first page on a web site, the
user can browse the rest of the site with no problems. A reboot will
resolve this issue for a few hours.


MORE DETAILS:
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Configuration info: This company shares DSL Internet access with another
business in the same building. The central router that is connected to the
DSL service has an access point attached to it that both businesses connect
to and does NAT. This business's server has a wireless NIC in it
(10.10.10.10) that connects to the access point (10.10.10.1). (Note, all
subnet masks are 255.255.255.0.) It also has a wired NIC in it
(10.10.100.10) which connects to the rest of the business's PCs. (So it's
dual-homed.) It has Routing and Remote Access enabled and all of the
computers go through it for Internet access. It is also the only domain
controller. (I know, I know - they should have at least one more for
redundancy. When business picks up, they will get another PC and another
copy of W2K Server.) It is also the DNS server and the DHCP server
(10.10.100.100 thru 199) for the business's other computers. It points to
itself for DNS (127.0.0.1) and DHCP hands out it's address (10.10.100.10) as
the DNS server. Internet Explorer is not set up to use a proxy and is not
set up to automatically detect settings. (I also checked for viruses,
worms, trojans, spyware, adware, and foreign BHOs.)

After the server has been booted for a few hours (from one to six or so),
Internet Explorer stops working properly. When a new web site is visited,
it does not come up. Instead, an error comes up (I think it's page cannot
be displayed). As soon as the user presses Refresh, the page comes up.
(Also, if the user presses Refresh while the server is still trying to load
the page the first time, it comes right up.) After that, the user can
browse any other page on that web site without any problems. But, as soon
as the user tries to go to a new web site, the same thing happens.

When this is happening, the server can successfully ping all of the web
sites by name right off the bat, even before trying to get to them in
Internet Explorer. (Even after pinging successfully, IE still has problems
with that web site.) The strangest thing is, all of the computers that go
through the server do not have any problems. Even while the server is
exhibiting this issue, the client PCs get to the sites the first time yet
the server has problems with those same sites.

This one is driving me nuts. Anybody else having the same issue? What can
I try next?

Thanks in advance,

Victor
 
You might try to delete all your temporary internet files and cookies to see if that
helps and possibly change your settings for temporary internet files to check for
newer version of stored pages to every time you visit the page. Also try logging on
as a different user to see if this happens. Next time it happens use nslookup to see
if your computer can resolve the domain name before you refresh. Don't worry if
nslookup gives you an error as it will if you do not have a reverse zone configured
for the domain, as long as it shows the correct IP address for your dns server and it
can resolve names without timing out. Additionally try changing the IP address for
your preferred dns server to it's actual IP address instead on 127.0.0.1 to see if
that makes a difference. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;200525
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;291382 --- AD dns FAQ.
 
Thanks for the quick response.

I've tried clearing cookies and cache but it did not work. I also tried
getting in via Terminal Services as a different user and that user also had
the same problem. I have not tried to set the parameter to check for newer
versions of stored pages because this happens even with web sites that have
never been visited before, ever. I've also tried pinging by name before I
try to hit a site, after I've tried the first time, and after the refresh.
The ping always works (and comes back immediately too, with no delay, so I'm
pretty sure the problem is not with DNS lookups). In fact, I think I've
even tried pulling up sites by IP address only and the same thing happens.
(I'm not positive though so I'll try this again next time I get a chance.)
By the way, when I used nslookup, the DNS server shows as localhost with
it's loopback address and resolves the name right away. I just changed the
primary DNS IP address to 10.10.100.10 and 10.10.10.10 on their respective
interfaces and now nslookup does give me the name and domain suffix of the
server as well as the 10.10.10.10 address.

Can you think of anything else?

Thanks Again,

Victor
 
Hmm. I have never had that problem before. It seems as if you have ruled out dns and
seems to be a problem with IE itself. What I would try from here is to add a couple
of sites to the trusted Web Content Zone and set the security for it at medium and
then exempt those sites from cookie handling rules by adding them to the sites list
in the privacy page. I would also set internet advanced options to default by
selecting "restore defaults" at the bottom of the page. You may want to document your
current settings first. First though I would scan the computer for parasites using
AdAware and be sure to update it's definitions by selecting "check for updates now"
after opening the program and clear temporary internet files and cookies before
scanning. Any time IE is acting strange it is a good idea to scan for parasites.
AdAware is free and available at the link below. Read the results carefully before
"fixing" problems as some of the items it detects may have been implemented by you. I
use it on all my computers at home. --- Steve

http://www.download.com/3000-2094-10045910.html?legacy=cnet
 
OK. I've ruled out Internet Explorer. It's gotta be in the TCP/IP stack
somewhere. Telnet does the same thing. I try to telnet into port 80 of a
new site and it does not succeed. 2nd time though always succeeds. And
it's not limited to port 80. Telnetting into a mail server's SMTP port (25)
behaves the same way. (And, yes, I already checked for parasites.)

Anybody have any ideas as to what my next troubleshooting step should be? I
don't want to reinstall the TCP/IP stack yet because of all the services
running on top of it that will have to be re-set up (e.g. DNS, DHCP, AD,
Routing and Remote Access, ...).

Thanks Again,

Victor
 
I still have not been able to solve this issue. Anybody have any ideas?

Victor S. said:
OK. I've ruled out Internet Explorer. It's gotta be in the TCP/IP stack
somewhere. Telnet does the same thing. I try to telnet into port 80 of a
new site and it does not succeed. 2nd time though always succeeds. And
it's not limited to port 80. Telnetting into a mail server's SMTP port (25)
behaves the same way. (And, yes, I already checked for parasites.)

Anybody have any ideas as to what my next troubleshooting step should be? I
don't want to reinstall the TCP/IP stack yet because of all the services
running on top of it that will have to be re-set up (e.g. DNS, DHCP, AD,
Routing and Remote Access, ...).

Thanks Again,

Victor



add
a couple default also before so changed dns
Click to expand...
ttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B291382 ---
 
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