Need help on a strange dns client issue

Hi,

I have encountered a strange problem with one of my customer's win2k
systems. For some reason the system can't ping some computers on the
network by hostname, but it can ping the same computer by IP address.
When pinging by hostname, I get the "Unknown host" message. I did a
ipconfig /displaydns and this is all that comes back despite the host
file having all kinds of entries (not newly added):


c:\>ipconfig /displaydns


Windows 2000 IP Configuration


c:\>


If I stop the DNS Client service however, I can ping the host by
hostname. After restarting the DNS Client service, the displaydns
shows the same. I then tried ipconfig /flushdns, but that doesn't
change the displaydns output either. I rebooted the system and
everything was back to normal and I could ping by hostname.


Does anyone know what could cause the DNS Resolver cache to get in this

seemingly empty state?


Thanks,
J Phaneuf

Any errors if using nslookup command?

Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on http://www.HowToNetworking.com
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
Hi,

I have encountered a strange problem with one of my customer's win2k
systems. For some reason the system can't ping some computers on the
network by hostname, but it can ping the same computer by IP address.
When pinging by hostname, I get the "Unknown host" message. I did a
ipconfig /displaydns and this is all that comes back despite the host
file having all kinds of entries (not newly added):


c:\>ipconfig /displaydns


Windows 2000 IP Configuration


c:\>


If I stop the DNS Client service however, I can ping the host by
hostname. After restarting the DNS Client service, the displaydns
shows the same. I then tried ipconfig /flushdns, but that doesn't
change the displaydns output either. I rebooted the system and
everything was back to normal and I could ping by hostname.


Does anyone know what could cause the DNS Resolver cache to get in this

seemingly empty state?


Thanks,
J Phaneuf

Robert,

I neglected to say that the system is not setup to reference a DNS
server. The system only talks to a few local systems for it's
particular operations so there's no need for a DNS server, so basically
only the hosts file is used.

Thanks,
Jason

Robert L [MVP - Networking] wrote:
> Any errors if using nslookup command?
>
> Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
> Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net
> How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on http://www.HowToNetworking.com
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...

Thank you for the update.

Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on http://www.HowToNetworking.com
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
Robert,

I neglected to say that the system is not setup to reference a DNS
server. The system only talks to a few local systems for it's
particular operations so there's no need for a DNS server, so basically
only the hosts file is used.

Thanks,
Jason

Robert L [MVP - Networking] wrote:
> Any errors if using nslookup command?
>
> Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
> Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net
> How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on http://www.HowToNetworking.com
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...

Any ideas? Anyone?