Win 98 to Web server client problems. DNS & DHCP Problems

[amitech]

Hi all,

A Windows 98SE Workstation on a small network has recently stopped connecting to Web site servers etc. The PC was working just fine until the user left for a few weeks to go on vacation, someone has probably been playing! :
This network only runs TCP/IP and the existing Windows 2000 Server is handing out DHCP addresses. There is a fixed internal (LAN) IP address ADSL Router providing the gateway to the ISP.

The problem PC is capable of Pinging the manually set Gateway address but will not ping the DNS Servers. Also using IPCONFIG the client does reliably get a dynamically assigned IP address, but fails to indicate a dynamically assigned gateway address.

All of the other PC’s Windows XP get their DHCP Inc Gateway addresses from the server. And the ISP’s DNS Server addresses are in use, by these machines. They are working fine with regard to their internet connectivity.

I have been wondering if this is a problem caused by incorrect DNS Forwarding config on the Win2K server, A Network engineer (friend) of mine advised me that Win98 clients require DNS Forwarding set-up on the server. I have checked the DNS Forwarding options on the server and they are set the same as an informative post by snootalope at

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?SQID=395315&SPID=616&newpid=616&page=1

However the settings seem to be correct, the address in the box, are the ISPS DNS Server addresses.

Additional info:
The server is not running as a DC and other file sharing network functions of the problem machine are working OK.

So if any one has any helpful advice I'd appreciate it, Thanks

Additionally:
I have become aware that over the last few years when I have set up smaller shared xDSL Routers to a small collection of client PC's that quite frequently I find that there is an older Win 98 Machine (or two) around, that may have been previously been DUN Connected to the net.
Often these machines will not allow internet traffic through the Ethernet port, even though TPC/IP appears to be correctly set up and configured & bound to the correct adaptor. Usually with these machines I have done a format and clean install. After which they happily contact Web servers (I have usually just assumed that this is because of some rough bit of installed software or crap downloaded from the Web. But perhaps there is some simple registry hack or setting that someone out there may know of, that often corrects this situation?

Thanks for your time guys,

Jim.

 

[ShackDaddy]

I would check for anything that was statically configured on the Win98 client. For example, a bad subnet mask could cause exactly the problems you describe. In addition, if the client's default gateway was statically configured separately from the rest of the config (I'm trying to remember if this is possible), then the DHCP-assigned gateway will be ignored.

If everything in the IP config looks good, you might want to just uninstall the adapter and TCP/IP and reinstall the adapter to clear things out.

To check for any weird settings, you might want to use WINIPCFG and release your DHCP address. While the client has no IP, look at the extended configuration properties (using the MORE button) and see if the client "knows" anything about anything. If it does, that is probably statically configured information. Once you've checked that, hit the "renew" button and see what populates. Is anything missing? What's the default gateway? The subnet mask? Is the listed gateway in the same network as the client IP?

This doesn't sound like a problem on the server, since the client can't ping the ISP DNS servers. I assume that you tried to ping them by IP address. Don't worry about the server forwarding settings. If things work for the other clients, they should be good for this system.

ShackDaddy