ADSL LAN w/ Win2000 Server was working, now broken. DNS Errors

[louis315]

Hello:

I've been sharing a BellSouth ADSL line among 7 computers on a home LAN for more than a year. I recently broke it while experimenting w/ MS Windows 2000 Active Directory.

Alcatel 1000 External ADSL modem
SMC Barricade DSL Router w/ 8 port switch (DHCP Server)
4 Win2000 Servers
1 Windows XP Pro
1 Windows ME
1 Windows 98

Anyway, I tried to promote one of the Win2k servers to an ActiveDir Domain Controller in a new forest. I was going to make that Win2000 Server machine the new DNS, WINS and DHCP server on the LAN and I was just going to use the SMC Router as the default gateway.

But I couldn't get Active Directory to authorize the DHCP service, even though the docs say that it should be automatic if the DHCP service is running on the domain controller.

I eventually lost interest in the Active Directory project and decided to rollback all of my A.D. changes. I reinstalled a clean copy of Windows 2000 Server on the machine that I promoted and I restored the SMC Router to its role as DHCP server.

I can now surf the web from the Win98, WinME and WinXP machines, but not from any of the Win2000 machines.

I can ping some Internet domains but not others.
I can do a successful PathPing for some domains but not others.
I'm not sure, but PathPing seems to have more success with domains that are less that 10 hops away.

Even if I can ping an Internet domain from one of the Win2k machines, I.E. gives an Immediate "DNS Error" every time I try to surf to a URL. I.E. won't even surf to an IP address.

I've UnInstalled and ReInstalled these items, but it hasn't helped:
Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.0
TCP/IP protocol
MS Network Client
IIS (all subsystems)
Win2000 SP2

I downloaded a 32-bit "Connection Manager" program from the BellSouth ISP that incorrectly says that my connection to the Internet is fine.

Q: What would allow the "desktop" operating systems to surf, but not Win2000 Server?
By the way, the desktops were affected at first until I unplugged all of the Win2k servers from the LAN and rebooted the Win98, WinME and WinXp machines.

Q: Does it make sense that DNS problems might be more likely as the number of hops increases?

Q: Is the output from PathPing (Win2000 ResKit) and/or TraceRt as simple as it looks?
If PathPing shows 15 hops between me and

http://www.HotMail.com

and then it traverses those hops and says that all is well until 100% of packets were lost at hop 12, is that really what happenned?
Does that mean that the problem is only at hop 12 and there's nothing that I can do about it?
Or could it mean that my configuration is somehow unable to deal with the TCP/IP transaction after hop 12?

Here are the TCP/IP details from one of the Win2000 Servers that CAN'T surf.
"domB3tt3y" is the domain name that the SMC Barricade uses on the LAN. I keyed that in an SMC admin screen.
192.168.123.254 is the proper LAN IP address for the SMC router
205.152.37.254 and 205.152.0.5 are the proper IP addresses for the BellSouth (ISP) DNS Servers. The SMC Router gets those addresses from the ISP's DHCP server when it logs into the WAN.


C:\>ipconfig /all

Windows 2000 IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : twopac111
Primary DNS Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : domB3tt3y

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : domB3tt3y
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NETGEAR ...
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-A0-CC-...
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.123.223
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.123.254
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.123.254
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 205.152.37.254
205.152.0.5
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Friday, January 04, 2002 12:39:03 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, February 14, 2002 4:39:03 PM

 

[dxd]

I don't have a lot of faith in using ping across the internet...mainly because the results are influenced by the configuration of the interconnecting devices..routers, swithces and so on.

The only thing I would use ping for is to verify you can hit the both sides of your router, the devices on your internal LAN, and the DNS server(s).

On the rest of the W2K machines, did you do an "IPCONFIG /release" and /renew? The problems do appear to be DNS related..to some degree anyway. I don't know if the previous info is cached somewhere which is causing the problems. You have 4 W2K Server machines all running as standalone servers? Have you tried them one at a time?

I am not familiar with your router...is it a firwall type device as well that allows filtering and blocking? You may want to verify its configuration and as a last resort reset it to factory defaults.

Sorry. I know it is not much direct help..just writing what comes to mind when reading your post.
Doug
dxd_2000@yahoo.com

 

[louis315]

Update from original poster:

I unplugged all of the machines from the router and rebooted it.
I then started adding machines to the LAN one at a time.
All of the desktop op systems still surf the web just fine.
All but 2 of the Win2000 Server machines are surfing successfully.

The remaining two Win2000 Servers seem to have good TCP/IP connectivity, but IE still won't surf. Immediate DNS error from I.E. for any URL, even localhost, or 127.1.1.1

It seems like something that the Internet Connection Wizard should fix but it doesn't.

What could cause I.E. to report continual DNS errors if ping, pathping and TraceRt are successful?

These are 2 stand-alone servers that may or may not have joined a short-lived Active Directory domain. They are now members of a new workgroup and the Active Directory domain no longer exists on the network.

thanks. bye.

 

[dxd]

Dumb question, I know....but, did you verify IE's settings..specifically the proxy settings?

You may want to try using "nslookup" from a command prompt to see if it can find the DNS server and then enter a name to see if it can be resolved.

If it fails you can use the utility to set the default name server.

just poking around here............... Doug
dxd_2000@yahoo.com

 

[louis315]

I've run the Internet Connection Wizard countless times with "Auto Discover Proxy" checked.

NsLookup works just fine.

If my router provides NAT, then there is no proxy server, right? I'm not running MS Proxy Server or Internet Connection Sharing or WinGate or WinPoet or any of those software-based routing services. My SMC hardware router provides all of the translation services without much configuration from me.

Where are proxy server specifics keyed and stored if not with the TCP/IP settings? What are "proxy server settings" other than Default Gateway, subnet mask, etc?

thanks. bye.