dns problem? outlook losing connection 1

[nerdcore]

This may be a lengthy explanation so forgive me if I am including too much information...This issue affects Microsoft Outlook however I believe that it has to do with the way my DNS is configured.

I have a business network that is connected to the internet via DSL through a proxy server running Windows 2000 Pro. I am using Avirt Gateway Client/Server software as the proxy. I have a Windows 2000 Server Domain Controller which is also my DNS server. My network is NOT DHCP, all addresses are assigned manually, and the DNS server addresses on the clients point to our internal DNS server (the domain controller).

My email server is hosted with another company externally. My problem is that my Microsoft Outlook 2000 email clients will loose connection during the day and I will get the error "The POP3 server name you specified cannot be found. Please check the name and try again..." and then in the text box my pop server is listed. In order to re-establish this connection I have to close Outlook and re-open it. I cannot just wait a while and have it reconnect. I will get this message indefinitely until I restart Outlook. I have verified that the mail server is not down and due to the fact that this happens EVERY DAY I have excluded a mail server problems as the possible cause. This happens intermittently about once or so a day, but some days it will happen 10 or more times (today being one of them). I have not received any error messages in the event log of the proxy or the dns server today, though there are a few errors that reoccur that i think are unrelated but here they are anyway:

Event ID: 11150 - The system failed to register network adapter with settings:

Adapter Name : {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
Host Name : proxy
Adapter-specific Domain Suffix : domain.local
DNS Server list :
x.x.x.x, x.x.x.x, x.x.x.x
Sent update to server : None
IP Address(es) :
xx.xx.xx.xx

The cause of this DNS registration failure was because the DNS update request timed out after being sent to the specified DNS Server. This is probably because the authoritative DNS server for the name being updated is not running.

You can manually retry registration of the network adapter and its settings by typing "ipconfig /registerdns" at the command prompt. If problems still persist, contact your network systems administrator to verify network conditions.


Event ID: 11050 - The DNS Client service could not contact any DNS servers for a repeated number of attempts. For the next 30 seconds the DNS Client service will not use the network to avoid further network performance problems. It will resume its normal behavior after that. If this problem persists, verify your TCP/IP configuration, specifically check that you have a preferred (and possibly an alternate) DNS server configured. If the problem continues, verify network conditions to these DNS servers or contact your network administrator.

I should add that as a test I installed Outlook on the proxy server, and set it up with an email account and it has not lost connection at all, while my clients behind the proxy have so it most likely is a problem with my setup. I came into this job with the setup already in place and would rather have a hardware firewall and get rid of the proxy all together but for now I am stuck with it. Any help at all is MUCH appreciated as the CEO's breath is quite hot on my neck .

 

[MaxImusRex]

I was wondering what machines are getting those errors?

Have you verified that your upstream DNS servers are always available?

Being that you are using an external email server, do your clients have to use the "Send/Receive" button to start an email transfer or is it set to check every once in a while?

 

[nerdcore]

Any and all of my Windows 2000 clients are getting the "POP3 server name cannot be found" error. The upstream DNS servers are always available as far as I can tell. My test Outlook client on the proxy server has not lost connection since I installed it a week and a half ago, yet all my clients are still losing connection. And lastly, my clients have Outlook set to check every 5 minutes for mail. However, the error message ONLY shows when using send-receive, but either way they do NOT get their outside mail. Some of my clients don't realize this as they don;t hit send-receive, but are confused as to why they get mail messages from yesterday when they boot up in the morning.

 

[shersh]

I have the same problem with my Outlook clients. I am running Win server 2003 as my PDC and at my XP clients use DHCP and DNS from my router/firewall. The server is used for authentication and file services.

The email is hosted by an external ISP. During the day the client PC's timeout periodically looking for the POP3 server. They get mail only in occasional bursts.

I am pretty sure it is a DNS lookup of some kind. Or is it the ISP?

 

[GlenJohnson]

http://www.buildorbuy.org/dnscache.html

Glen A. Johnson
"Give the laziest man the hardest job and he'll find the easiest way to do it."

Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884