Curious DNS problem using DNS

Hi,

So I'm trying to use ICS to share an internet connection between two
XP Pro laptops (connected by a crossover ethernet cable). The
Internet connection is provided by a public wireless LAN. I know this
is a far from ideal situation but it is the only game in town as far
as my current situation goes. Anyway laptop #1 can happily access the
internet and has been set-up to share it's wireless connection as per
the instructions for ICS on the MS website. Laptop #1 uses DHCP to
obtain it's IP and DNS information from the wireless access point.

Laptop #2 is set to use DHCP to obtain an IP address and DNS server
and is able to see Laptop #1 and its shared internet gateway
connection. It is also able to do the following:

1) Ping any site you care to name - either as an IP address or as a
domain name

2) (And here's the weird part) View google.com/co.uk and related
domains - including blogger and google groups. NB this is not just a
caching issue as I can visit dynamically generated google pages too -
indeed I'm writing this on said impaired laptop #2 and have no problem
posting.

However it cannot do the following:

1) resolve hostnames other than those mentioned above - requests time
out after a long period of waiting.

2) fully complete tracert commands to domains that can be successfully
pinged - the trace completes but requests for the hop IP's time out -
though I'm guessing this could just be incidental to the problem at
hand

I'm frankly pretty much at a loss to explain what's going on, except
that it probably involves a DNS problem of some sort - could it be
that the (public) wireless connection I'm connecting to declines to
resolve dns requests from what it determines to be shared connections
some how? if so how come I can still view/use google domains?

Anyway, all help or suggestions would be very gratefully received.

Thanks

Tom

sample ipconfig /all, ping and tracert output for laptop #2 follows
below for information - do ask if I could provide anything else that
might help determine what's going on:


C:\>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : XXXXXX17
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Mixed
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : mshome.net

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : mshome.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x
Family Fast Eth
ernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-C0-9F-6B-13-57
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.221
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.252.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 03 September 2007 16:46:37
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 10 September 2007 16:46:37

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 3:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/Wireless
2200BG Network
Connection
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0E-35-A5-F1-E6
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.130.148
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

C:\>ping www.bbc.co.uk

Pinging www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.226.232] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 212.58.226.232: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=115
Reply from 212.58.226.232: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=115
Reply from 212.58.226.232: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=115
Reply from 212.58.226.232: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=115

Ping statistics for 212.58.226.232:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 10ms, Maximum = 18ms, Average = 12ms

C:\>tracert www.bbc.co.uk

Tracing route to www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.226.232]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms BENS.mshome.net [192.168.0.1]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 935 ms 11 ms 12 ms 212.58.226.232

Trace complete.

sample output ends

Incidentally, both laptops have wireless adapters, but while laptop #1
quite happily connects to the internet, laptop #2 stubbornly refuses
to even detect any wireless networks at all at this location (when
laptop #1 tells me that there are several within range and the latops
are just inches apart, and I know laptop #2's wireless adaptor is
working from recent use elsewhere). I tried to relsove this but got
nowhere.

sory, post title should have read "..using ICS" not "...using DNS".

I am not a total idiot. Honest I'm not.

In message <(E-Mail Removed) om>,
(E-Mail Removed) writes
>Laptop #1 uses DHCP to
>obtain it's IP and DNS information from the wireless access point.

If it is running ICS it has to have fixed IP of 192.168.0.1 and be a
DHCP server.
take yourself outside and have a quiet word with yourself for even
thinking about such a kludge way of doing things.
--
Devs
"Punchdown Pete the old Kroner"

> If it is running ICS it has to have fixed IP of 192.168.0.1 and be a
> DHCP server.

Perhaps I should have been more clear. Laptop #1's wireless connection
(which is internet facing) uses DHCP.
The same laptop's wired ethernet connection has a fixed IP of
192.168.0.1 and is a DHCP server, as you put it, as that is part of
ICS.

Laptop #2's wired connection is also set to use DHCP and is using
192.168.0.1 as it's default gateway, DHCP server and DNS servers (this
is the IP of Laptop #1's wired adapter - as automatically set when ICS
is enabled, but I'm sure you knew that). You can tell all that if you
read the ipconfig data I provided above.

Furthermore at least some DNS requests are being resolved via ICS as
Laptop #2 is able to ping domains as well as IP's. Since Laptop #2's
DNS server is set to Laptop #1's IP, ICS is clearly working for DNS at
least. in part DHCP via ICS is clearly working too as Laptop #2 is
able to acquire an IP from Laptop #1.

Still figuring all that out would have required you to actually read
my post in the first place AND understand all the long words in it,
maybe you should take your own advice and

> take yourself outside and have a quiet word with yourself for even
> thinking about such a kludge way of doing things.

thanks for your interest all the same.

In the unlikely event of some one else encountering the same problem,
I'm now fairly sure the issue is on the router/ internet connection
side of the field - the free wireless I'm connecting to requires one
click to accept a set of terms and conditions when you first connect -
I think this may set a cookie on the client machine that is required
to validate http requests. Or something like that.

In article <(E-Mail Removed). com>,
(E-Mail Removed)
(E-Mail Removed) says...

> Still figuring all that out would have required you to actually read
> my post in the first place AND understand all the long words in it,
> maybe you should take your own advice and
>
> > take yourself outside and have a quiet word with yourself for even
> > thinking about such a kludge way of doing things.
>
> thanks for your interest all the same.

Hehe. :-)
>
> In the unlikely event of some one else encountering the same problem,
> I'm now fairly sure the issue is on the router/ internet connection
> side of the field - the free wireless I'm connecting to requires one
> click to accept a set of terms and conditions when you first connect -
> I think this may set a cookie on the client machine that is required
> to validate http requests. Or something like that.
>
Sounds possible. If that's the case I wonder if you could get the
second machine to use the cookie cache on the ICS machine to get around
it.

On Sep 4, 10:48 am, "metadapt...@googlemail.com" <t...@tomdavies.net>
wrote:
> > If it is running ICS it has to have fixed IP of 192.168.0.1 and be a
> > DHCP server.
>
> Perhaps I should have been more clear. Laptop #1's wireless connection
> (which is internet facing) uses DHCP.
> The same laptop's wired ethernet connection has a fixed IP of
> 192.168.0.1 and is a DHCP server, as you put it, as that is part of
> ICS.
>
> Laptop #2's wired connection is also set to use DHCP and is using
> 192.168.0.1 as it's default gateway, DHCP server and DNS servers (this
> is the IP of Laptop #1's wired adapter - as automatically set when ICS
> is enabled, but I'm sure you knew that). You can tell all that if you
> read the ipconfig data I provided above.
>
> Furthermore at least some DNS requests are being resolved via ICS as
> Laptop #2 is able to ping domains as well as IP's. Since Laptop #2's
> DNS server is set to Laptop #1's IP, ICS is clearly working for DNS at
> least. in part DHCP via ICS is clearly working too as Laptop #2 is
> able to acquire an IP from Laptop #1.
>
> Still figuring all that out would have required you to actually read
> my post in the first place AND understand all the long words in it,
> maybe you should take your own advice and
>
> > take yourself outside and have a quiet word with yourself for even
> > thinking about such a kludge way of doing things.
>
> thanks for your interest all the same.
>
> In the unlikely event of some one else encountering the same problem,
> I'm now fairly sure the issue is on the router/ internet connection
> side of the field - the free wireless I'm connecting to requires one
> click to accept a set of terms and conditions when you first connect -
> I think this may set a cookie on the client machine that is required
> to validate http requests. Or something like that.

Hmm, sounds like it's at their end. You could try using some other
public DNS servers to make sure, but I'd imagine that if you're
connecting to a big public network they'll be using something like
NoCatAuth or similar so that on first connection your web session gets
redirected to a holding page where you have to accept their terms and
conditions before proceeding.
Not seen this on a cookies basis, but could be done based on mac
address of network card as well. not too familiar with how ICS
handles this kind of thing and if it routes properly...

what happened when you first connected the PC running ICS to the
network? did it point you at a splash screen page? If so, can you
manually navigate to that from the other PC?

It could well be that they've made this difficult to explicitly stop
people hooking up multiple PCs to it...!

Ric

In article <(E-Mail Removed). com>, ric
(E-Mail Removed) says...
>
> It could well be that they've made this difficult to explicitly stop
> people hooking up multiple PCs to it...!
>
I suppose otherwise it would be rather easy for neighbours to set up a
wifi bridge and get free internet. :-)

In message <(E-Mail Removed). com>,
"(E-Mail Removed)" <(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>Still figuring all that out would have required you to actually read
>my post in the first place AND understand all the long words in it,

My world is at an end. I have just been insulted by a numpty who posts
from google, replies to his own posts with "I am not a total idiot.
Honest I'm not" and cannot find an alternative to (not being able to)
using ICS. The shame, oh the shame.
--
Devs
"Punchdown Pete the old Kroner"

thanks very much for your replies and ideas rob & ric,

@ ric yes a splash screen did appear when I first connected - but I've
been unable to get it to display again - as it only seems to appear
that once - sessions seem to persist overnight despite around 10 hours
of time without a connection. Plus the page was shown in a frame and
I (foolishly) didn't identify the true address at the time as I didn't
know then I'd want to do all this.

The page only required me to click a radio box rather than select it
and click a submit button (if that makes sense) - this suggested to me
(though I'm quite prepared to accept otherwise) that there was
probably no POST command or similar used, which made me think
javascript and thence perhaps a cookie. I'm also none too familiar
with ICS and whether acts as a true router/whether client MAC
addresses are hidden from outside connections, though I doubt it's
particularly fully featured given it's single-click add-on status.

@rob - am going to have a play and see if I can get the client machine
to use the other one's cookie cash, to be honest I'm perfectly aware
that this isn't really the sort of thing that ICS was designed for and
that there are much better ways of doing these things given time and
resources - but it's kept me busy for a day of so of a deeply dull
conference.

The only odd thing is that this all seems a little advanced for a
network that seems to have no content or traffic filtering implemented
at all - I've found (just for giggles) that can happily bittorrent and
VOIP without issue on the machine thats connecting directly - it all
seems a little haphazard for a security policy - access is free so it
can even just be that they're interested in protecting their wi-fi
revenues (the location is in the conference area of a large hotel -
guess I should just be happy that I'm not having to pay silly money
per day for my packets.

Anyway thanks again guys - if I get anywhere I'll report back.

On Mon, 03 Sep 2007 16:04:50 -0000, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>Hi,
>
>So I'm trying to use ICS to share an internet connection between two
>XP Pro laptops (connected by a crossover ethernet cable). The
>Internet connection is provided by a public wireless LAN. I know this
>is a far from ideal situation but it is the only game in town as far
>as my current situation goes. Anyway laptop #1 can happily access the
>internet and has been set-up to share it's wireless connection as per
>the instructions for ICS on the MS website. Laptop #1 uses DHCP to
>obtain it's IP and DNS information from the wireless access point.

As your main machine can access the world OK, I'd suggest that the
Wireless providers are doing nothing fancy and the problem you are
seeing is purely down to ICS. Try putting in a public DNS server on
lappy 2, instead of it using the DNS of the ICS server given by it's
dhcp server. ICS's ability to run a decent DNS service has always been
a bit flakey, IME.

> Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-C0-9F-6B-13-57
> Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
> Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
> IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.221
> Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.252.0
> Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
> DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
> DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
> Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 03 September 2007 16:46:37
> Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 10 September 2007 16:46:37

Just curious about the mask here. I thought that ICS always used a /24
subnet? Shouldn't have any bearing on your problem, just seems a bit
unusual.