Unable to resolve hostname (winsock problem?)

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RonGGGG said:
Really, I greatly appreciate your help, even if it didn't resolve the issue.
I'm probably going to use Geek Squad, if you can believe that. I spoke to an
operator yesterday who wants to assign it to their "covert ops" section, but
if they fix the problem (which I STRONGLY doubt they can), the laugh wil be
on me.

STILL: $100 (cash) to ANYONE WHO CAN FIX THIS PROBLEM.

RON

Charlie Tame said:
Well I am amazed nobody has yet come up with something so simple that... oh
well.

You have obviously looked at the properties for both network cards a lot by
now, I don't suppose there's an huge difference in protocols in use?

I suppose having another command window open with ipconfig /all in it might
tell you if anything keeps changing but again you'd have to keep doing
ipconfig /release and then /renew to see the changes. I'm wondering if
something is giving you a lease that's timing out in session or something. I
don't know what would happen if your router is doing DHCP and the 2000
machine had the DHCP server running too, or even XP Pro doing something of
that nature. My brain ain't working much better tonight than it was last
night to be honest :)

Charlie



RonGGGG said:
I changed the WINS tab setting to Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP (which the
default setting is supposed to also support), but that didn't help. It
*appeared* to make a difference in that I had hostname resolution for the
entire evening without ping running in a cmd window, but this morning, it
was
back to the usual.

I am continuing to examine the software environment.

$100 to ANYONE WHO SOLVES THIS!!! NO KDDING.



:

Well there's a large amount of guesswork on my part here and I guess
NetBIOS
and LAN Manager (the dos networking system that I think WINS might be
derived from) might interact in some unforeseen way with something...
honest
I am not trying to waste your time or mine so I appreciate your patience
too.

Someone is going to step in soon with a blindingly obvious answer to this
I'm sure, but darned if I can see it right now. I mean I can see a number
of
things that might cause this, even at random, but I can't see the
"Timeout"
issue at all. Did anyone suggest checking in Administrative
tools>services
to see what's running in there? I had something odd going on with 2000
once
where it seemed to want the DNS server running as well as the DNS
client...
never found out what that was but it came and went for no apparent reason
so
I am not sure it even was that :) In the services control panel you can
have
services disabled, manual or automatic. Auto basically means when the
system
starts, manual means on demand (say another program) and disabled means
never, so you don't want to disable that which you are not sure about :)
You
can also find some info by looking at Event Viewer. I'd copy a shortcut
to
the desktop for Admin tools and maybe event viewer and services so you
can
quickly look and see if anything changes.

Meanwhile if anyone who knows the answer is watching and thinking
"Idiots"
please don't, enlighten us eh?

Charlie

One more thing: The "good" Win2K machine has "Enable NetBIOS over
TCP/IP"
selected and the XP machine did not (it had the default, "Use NetBIOS
setting
from DHCP server. If static IP address is used or the DHCP server does
not
provide NetBIO setting enable NetBIOX over TCP/IP" (this was enabled;
now
I
selected Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP. I'll try!!!

:

Aha, found some more info

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=263558

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=813827

Now I have NOT had time to read these properly Ron so at your own risk
or
wait for other suggestions these came from the help file on that
little
program mentioned in previous post so it looks like the authors did
some
comprehensive research, all credit to them for this info.

I don't have time to go break my XP to see if I can duplicate your
problem.

Charlie

Yes, I did all that. The setting are identical.

The ODDEST THING is that I was speaking to my boss this morning,
describing
the problem and ended with "you'll just never believe this." and he
said,
"I
believe it. It happens to me." He has a laptop (mine is a desktop),
and
he
uses a Verizon Aircard when he's on the train going to work. If he
doesn't
keep a cmd window open, constantly pinging a hostname, the machine
loses
its
ability to resolve hostnames. TOTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM, Network,
etc.,
but
very similar situation.

:

Did you find the start>settings>network connections>local area
whatever
it
is and check both machines by clicking the properties button and
then
double
clicking on the TCP/IP protocol line? See if they are the same
settings
in
there and if not make them the same? I suppose it's also possible
that
some
spyware as yet undiscovered could be trying to redirect your
inquiries
and
causing a delay so it times out.

Sorry I don't have any more ideas right now, it's not one of my
better
days
(weeks)? :)

Charlie

The only thing in my hosts file is localhost.

The odd thing is that the problem seems to occur after there is
no
DNS
activity for a while. I've been piniging a website all night
using
ping
<hostname> to force DNS hostname resolution and this morning, no
problem.
Of
course, I can't do this forever.

So, the problem occurs when I don't try to resolve hostnames for
a
while.

There are no errors written to the event log.

The other computer attached to my linksys works perfectly even
when
my
XP
computer has the problem.

:

Try searching for a file called "HOSTS" without the quotes and
without
an
extension. The default file is a simple example with the
instructions
briefly included in it, you can open it with notepad when you
find
it.

Some spyware puts odd things in there.

This can be used to resolve names just like the DNS you mention
and
if
that's been screwed up it may be stopping your resolution from
taking
place.
If you can use a numeric address and reach websites it's no
likely
an
IP
problem.

Here is a sample of a hosts file


# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for
Windows.
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names.
Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address
should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding
host
name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at
least
one
# space.
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on
individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
# For example:
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 www.f1organizer.com #REMOVED ADWARE URL
127.0.0.1 www.netpalnow.com #REMOVED ADWARE URL
127.0.0.1 www.addictivetechnologies.com #REMOVED ADWARE
URL
127.0.0.1 www.mindseti.com #REMOVED ADWARE URL
127.0.0.1 www.mindsetinteractive.com #REMOVED ADWARE URL
127.0.0.1 coolwebsearch.com
127.0.0.1 stats.coolwebsearch.com
127.0.0.1 www.coolwebsearch.com #[CWS/IEFeats]


The lines starting with # and the one line below referring to
localhost
are
in there by default, the lines added below there were added by
Kerio
Personal Firewall to divert popup calls in web pages to
localhost,
which
without a web server running is the same as nowhere. is also
possible
for
the router to be blocking something for one machine and not the
other,
although I think it's more likely spyware / crapware damage to
the
computer
until we can establish otherwise. :)

Charlie




I will try that. But...if the other computer on the router has
no
problem,
no
errors occur, and the internet is available (pinging and
email)
why
would
the
router be a possible culprit.

What I don't understand is this: when I use ping to resolve a
hostname,
I
assume that the string contains a hostname it is passed first
to
the
nearest
DN server so the name can be resolved and then forwarded to
the
resulting
IP
address.

The IP Address part works perfectly. It is only the address
resolution
which
fails. I don't know enough about IP protocol to know if the
address
the
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
RonGGGG said:
Really, I greatly appreciate your help, even if it didn't resolve the issue.
I'm probably going to use Geek Squad, if you can believe that. I spoke to an
operator yesterday who wants to assign it to their "covert ops" section, but
if they fix the problem (which I STRONGLY doubt they can), the laugh wil be
on me.

STILL: $100 (cash) to ANYONE WHO CAN FIX THIS PROBLEM.

RON

Charlie Tame said:
Well I am amazed nobody has yet come up with something so simple that... oh
well.

You have obviously looked at the properties for both network cards a lot by
now, I don't suppose there's an huge difference in protocols in use?

I suppose having another command window open with ipconfig /all in it might
tell you if anything keeps changing but again you'd have to keep doing
ipconfig /release and then /renew to see the changes. I'm wondering if
something is giving you a lease that's timing out in session or something. I
don't know what would happen if your router is doing DHCP and the 2000
machine had the DHCP server running too, or even XP Pro doing something of
that nature. My brain ain't working much better tonight than it was last
night to be honest :)

Charlie



RonGGGG said:
I changed the WINS tab setting to Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP (which the
default setting is supposed to also support), but that didn't help. It
*appeared* to make a difference in that I had hostname resolution for the
entire evening without ping running in a cmd window, but this morning, it
was
back to the usual.

I am continuing to examine the software environment.

$100 to ANYONE WHO SOLVES THIS!!! NO KDDING.



:

Well there's a large amount of guesswork on my part here and I guess
NetBIOS
and LAN Manager (the dos networking system that I think WINS might be
derived from) might interact in some unforeseen way with something...
honest
I am not trying to waste your time or mine so I appreciate your patience
too.

Someone is going to step in soon with a blindingly obvious answer to this
I'm sure, but darned if I can see it right now. I mean I can see a number
of
things that might cause this, even at random, but I can't see the
"Timeout"
issue at all. Did anyone suggest checking in Administrative
tools>services
to see what's running in there? I had something odd going on with 2000
once
where it seemed to want the DNS server running as well as the DNS
client...
never found out what that was but it came and went for no apparent reason
so
I am not sure it even was that :) In the services control panel you can
have
services disabled, manual or automatic. Auto basically means when the
system
starts, manual means on demand (say another program) and disabled means
never, so you don't want to disable that which you are not sure about :)
You
can also find some info by looking at Event Viewer. I'd copy a shortcut
to
the desktop for Admin tools and maybe event viewer and services so you
can
quickly look and see if anything changes.

Meanwhile if anyone who knows the answer is watching and thinking
"Idiots"
please don't, enlighten us eh?

Charlie

One more thing: The "good" Win2K machine has "Enable NetBIOS over
TCP/IP"
selected and the XP machine did not (it had the default, "Use NetBIOS
setting
from DHCP server. If static IP address is used or the DHCP server does
not
provide NetBIO setting enable NetBIOX over TCP/IP" (this was enabled;
now
I
selected Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP. I'll try!!!

:

Aha, found some more info

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=263558

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=813827

Now I have NOT had time to read these properly Ron so at your own risk
or
wait for other suggestions these came from the help file on that
little
program mentioned in previous post so it looks like the authors did
some
comprehensive research, all credit to them for this info.

I don't have time to go break my XP to see if I can duplicate your
problem.

Charlie

Yes, I did all that. The setting are identical.

The ODDEST THING is that I was speaking to my boss this morning,
describing
the problem and ended with "you'll just never believe this." and he
said,
"I
believe it. It happens to me." He has a laptop (mine is a desktop),
and
he
uses a Verizon Aircard when he's on the train going to work. If he
doesn't
keep a cmd window open, constantly pinging a hostname, the machine
loses
its
ability to resolve hostnames. TOTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM, Network,
etc.,
but
very similar situation.

:

Did you find the start>settings>network connections>local area
whatever
it
is and check both machines by clicking the properties button and
then
double
clicking on the TCP/IP protocol line? See if they are the same
settings
in
there and if not make them the same? I suppose it's also possible
that
some
spyware as yet undiscovered could be trying to redirect your
inquiries
and
causing a delay so it times out.

Sorry I don't have any more ideas right now, it's not one of my
better
days
(weeks)? :)

Charlie

The only thing in my hosts file is localhost.

The odd thing is that the problem seems to occur after there is
no
DNS
activity for a while. I've been piniging a website all night
using
ping
<hostname> to force DNS hostname resolution and this morning, no
problem.
Of
course, I can't do this forever.

So, the problem occurs when I don't try to resolve hostnames for
a
while.

There are no errors written to the event log.

The other computer attached to my linksys works perfectly even
when
my
XP
computer has the problem.

:

Try searching for a file called "HOSTS" without the quotes and
without
an
extension. The default file is a simple example with the
instructions
briefly included in it, you can open it with notepad when you
find
it.

Some spyware puts odd things in there.

This can be used to resolve names just like the DNS you mention
and
if
that's been screwed up it may be stopping your resolution from
taking
place.
If you can use a numeric address and reach websites it's no
likely
an
IP
problem.

Here is a sample of a hosts file


# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for
Windows.
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names.
Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address
should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding
host
name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at
least
one
# space.
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on
individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
# For example:
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 www.f1organizer.com #REMOVED ADWARE URL
127.0.0.1 www.netpalnow.com #REMOVED ADWARE URL
127.0.0.1 www.addictivetechnologies.com #REMOVED ADWARE
URL
127.0.0.1 www.mindseti.com #REMOVED ADWARE URL
127.0.0.1 www.mindsetinteractive.com #REMOVED ADWARE URL
127.0.0.1 coolwebsearch.com
127.0.0.1 stats.coolwebsearch.com
127.0.0.1 www.coolwebsearch.com #[CWS/IEFeats]


The lines starting with # and the one line below referring to
localhost
are
in there by default, the lines added below there were added by
Kerio
Personal Firewall to divert popup calls in web pages to
localhost,
which
without a web server running is the same as nowhere. is also
possible
for
the router to be blocking something for one machine and not the
other,
although I think it's more likely spyware / crapware damage to
the
computer
until we can establish otherwise. :)

Charlie




I will try that. But...if the other computer on the router has
no
problem,
no
errors occur, and the internet is available (pinging and
email)
why
would
the
router be a possible culprit.

What I don't understand is this: when I use ping to resolve a
hostname,
I
assume that the string contains a hostname it is passed first
to
the
nearest
DN server so the name can be resolved and then forwarded to
the
resulting
IP
address.

The IP Address part works perfectly. It is only the address
resolution
which
fails. I don't know enough about IP protocol to know if the
address
the
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I just applied it (holding my breath and uttering a small prayer) and will
let you know if that works. It takes a while for the DNS failure to occur.
 
Sadly, this did not work. I am at a total loss.

I'm going to try Geek Squad, would you believe?

Offer is still out there: $100 to anyone with the right suggestion, short of
reformatting my hd.

RON
 
Thread in archive: http://snipurl.com/i3bu [Please include all of previous
message(s) in your replies to the newsgroup.]

On 26 Sept-05, you wrote, "I'll try connecting the computer directly into
the modem, bypassing the router" (suggested by Siljaline on 24 Sept-05).

Results?
 
RonGGGG said:
I have two computers on a lan connected via a linksys router, using Time
Warner's cable modem. Until recently, no problems.
Now, on the XP machine (6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519) from time to
time (i.e., several times a day), the computer cannot resolve hostnames.
Click to expand...


I have a similar symptom on Dial-up.
In order to check on it I open a cmd window and enter nslookup
(without operands.) If my system is in the problem state nslookup will
indicate timeouts trying to do reverse lookups on the server addresses.

I have no way of knowing whether this state indicates a problem on the
client side or on the server side. I have not yet resorted to trying to run
continual traces trying to capture an occurrence of the traffic which leads
up to this state (in which case I would have a better idea of where the
problem lies.) The only real way of knowing however, would be to have
concurrent traces running on both the client and the server and that would
require the cooperation of somebody on the server side (e.g. someone
from my ISP). I have mentioned this and even more easily diagnosed
problems to my ISP but they only want to finger-point.

Consequently each time the problem state is clearly identified by the
nslookup test I simply disconnect and reconnect. E.g. via the same
command window I would give nslookup its exit subcommand and
then enter:

rasdial /d

to hang up the link. Undoubtedly the same effect is being achieved
by your rebooting. Broadband or LAN users should be able to achieve
a similar result using ipconfig options but usually such posters claim that
that command has no effect and continue to assert that only rebooting
clears up the problem state.


Alternatively, if you suspect that your lookups are the only problem
or especially if they only occur with one site you could try isolating
DNS from your symptoms by adding an entry to HOSTS to replace
the lookup. It would probably have to be a very simple test page though,
e.g. one which avoided the possibility of redirects or lookups for page
components in order to validate an assumption that the override had not
avoided the problem (since if the test page still failed to render you might
be seeing the same external symptom for a different reason.)


BTW since you have isolated your problem from IE you should be looking
for support in a more general forum, e.g., in a newsgroup which specializes
in networking for your OS.

Note that while IE may be involved with this problem that the real expertise
you need is probably in a networking newsgroup.

In any case here is an interactive troubleshooter which you can try.
It contains a link to an XP newsgroup which specializes in networking.

http://www.michna.com/kb/


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---
 
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