DNS queries slow and fail often

[hx219]

Hi all,

Recently we moved our server to Windows 2003 and have been having some problems. First of all, the server handles Routing and Remote Access, DHCP, and DNS. Active directory has not yet been turned on. Everything works find except for the DNS service. It is set up to forward all requests to out ISP’s two DNS server, but for some reason, queries aren’t being responded to as fast as they should, if at all (about 1 in 10 fails). Restarting seems to clear this problem up for a few hours or so, but it never completely goes away. If I set client computers on the network to use the ISP’s DNS servers directly, everything works just fine. Does anyone know what could be causing this slowdown? Thanks for any tips/suggestions.

Brian

 

[CMASPE]

I know they have a q article on using the dns command in regards to dealing with teh UDp packet size. I too have had a terrible time with DNS on 2003 and have my mail server and clients using the 2000 server instead of the 2003 for name resolution. They also have a patch for the dns portion available if you contact customer support. If I remember correctly it is for mail lookup errors..something to do with the domain in all CAPS instead of small letters.

If you like my post let me know if I blow an answer...well it's probably late and I have had too many beers! Cheers!!
A+, NET+, MCSA, MCSE, CCNA

 

[TechieAdmin]

Is this a known issue with 2003 DNS? I also have similar problems. If I connect a workstation directly to our ISP DNS servers response is quite rapid but going via the servers DNS connection is slowed say about 5 to 10 sec before a web page is shown.

 

[iLinkTech]

I had a similar problem with a W2K DNS setup - it turned out that the ISP's DNS servers were intermittantly returning a SrvFailure error to the Forwarding request. Turning off Forwarding and simply using the root hints resolved the problem.

Try using NetMon (or a similar analyzer) to see if you are getting any of these DNS errors.