One computer only on home net having DNS lookup trouble

I have one linux machine on my home network causing trouble with name
lookup. It finds some names but simply won't find others. When booted
with windows it works, but with ubuntu, the browser times out if asked
to go to one of the bad names. It so happens google.com is bad. I tried
using host to see what I could see. Here is what it says on one of the
good machines:

$ host google.com
google.com has address 72.14.207.99
google.com has address 64.233.187.99
google.com has address 64.233.167.99
$

And here is what it says on the bad one:


$ host google.com
google.com has address 72.14.207.99
google.com has address 64.233.187.99
google.com has address 64.233.167.99
;; Warning: Message parser reports malformed message packet.
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
$

All network settings are identical on all machines, except of course for
the machine's own ip address. (I am using static addressing.) But the
misbehaving machine is a newly set-up laptop with Kubuntu, and I have to
manually click on the wireless connection to make it connect, and i also
find that when turned on, the cable port is showing as connected and I
have to click on that to disconnect it (as there is no wired connection,
only wireless).

Lastly, actually typing in the IP address shown by the host command
brings google up instantly, so the network is connected.

Can't think of anything else to try, so TIA for any suggestions!

Ron House.

On 2006-12-30, Ron House <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> $ host google.com

how about using dig ?
what's in /etc/resolv.conf ?
what's in /etc/nsswitch.conf ?

> ;; Warning: Message parser reports malformed message packet.
> ;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

Did you checked if the firewall is allowing DNS resolution?

Davide

--
Bill Gates to his broker:
"You idiot, I said $150 million on SNAPPLE!!!"

Davide Bianchi wrote:
> On 2006-12-30, Ron House <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>$ host google.com
>
>
> how about using dig ?

Good idea. $ dig google.com

The bad machine:

; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> google.com
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 47376
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;google.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
google.com. 30 IN A 64.233.167.99
google.com. 30 IN A 64.233.187.99
google.com. 30 IN A 72.14.207.99

;; Query time: 2 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.2.1#53(192.168.2.1)
;; WHEN: Sat Dec 30 19:38:01 2006
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 76


A good machine:

; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> google.com
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 1530
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 4

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;google.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
google.com. 272 IN A 72.14.207.99
google.com. 272 IN A 64.233.187.99
google.com. 272 IN A 64.233.167.99

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
google.com. 155118 IN NS ns1.google.com.
google.com. 155118 IN NS ns4.google.com.
google.com. 155118 IN NS ns2.google.com.
google.com. 155118 IN NS ns3.google.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.google.com. 67524 IN A 216.239.32.10
ns2.google.com. 239898 IN A 216.239.34.10
ns3.google.com. 239898 IN A 216.239.36.10
ns4.google.com. 239898 IN A 216.239.38.10

;; Query time: 59 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.2.1#53(192.168.2.1)
;; WHEN: Sat Dec 30 19:33:58 2006
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 212



> what's in /etc/resolv.conf ?

The bad machine (kubuntu):

domain gemmie
nameserver 192.168.2.1

A good machine (plain debian):

# Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by
resolvconf(8)
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
search Gemmie
nameserver 192.168.2.1


> what's in /etc/nsswitch.conf ?

Both machines:

passwd: compat
group: compat
shadow: compat

hosts: files dns
networks: files

protocols: db files
services: db files
ethers: db files
rpc: db files

netgroup: nis

>
>
>>;; Warning: Message parser reports malformed message packet.
>>;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
>
>
> Did you checked if the firewall is allowing DNS resolution?

It must be, because the box is allowing all other machines to do DNS.
(Unless there is some subtlety I don't understand - quite possible!)

>
> Davide

Thanks for the suggestions Davide.

Ron House

On 2006-12-30, Ron House <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> how about using dig ?
>
> Good idea. $ dig google.com
>
> The bad machine:
>
> ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 47376
> ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

the "bad" machine doesn't seems too bad...

>> Did you checked if the firewall is allowing DNS resolution?
>
> It must be, because the box is allowing all other machines to do DNS.

I was talking about the firewall on the 'bad' machine, not the firewall
on the gateway. Anyway, from what you posted it doesn't seems a problem
in names resolution.

Davide

--
IBM's vision is apparently to make IBM hardware "scream with Microsoft
software" -- The Register
I have visions of screaming with (at and about) Microsoft software, too.
-- Joe Moore on alt.sysadmin.recovery

On Sat, 30 Dec 2006 19:44:05 +1000, Ron House wrote:

>> what's in /etc/resolv.conf ?
>
> The bad machine (kubuntu):
>
> domain gemmie
> nameserver 192.168.2.1
>
> A good machine (plain debian):
>
> # Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by
> resolvconf(8)
> # DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
> search Gemmie
> nameserver 192.168.2.1

I would change 'domain gemmie' to 'search gemmie' in your resolv.conf like
it is on the good machine.


--

Regards
Robert

Smile... it increases your face value!


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On Sat, 30 Dec 2006, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.networking, in
article <en5cd5$200$(E-Mail Removed)>, Ron House wrote:

>Good idea. $ dig google.com

>The bad machine:

is returning data, but you seem to be running into cache problems. The
bad system didn't show 'AUTHORITY' or 'ADDITIONAL' records. Try this
instead. Query somehost.name.com on one system, then as quickly as
practical (seconds), repeat the query on the other, AND THEN AGAIN on
the first - and compare those last two. This more smells of a packet
corruption, and I'd suggest looking at the outputs of a packet sniffer
to detect this. As you can go to the sites by IP address, this would
suggest a UDP problem, rather than IP or packet level - but off the top
of my head I have no idea what might be the actual cause.

As for the problem of which interface gets brought up by default, that's
a configuration error thanks to the helpful installer guessing wrong.
Clicking on something says GUI - and I don't bother administering my
systems that way. You may see the source of the problem in your
/etc/network/interfaces file.

> what's in /etc/resolv.conf ?
>
>The bad machine (kubuntu):
>
>domain gemmie

>A good machine (plain debian):

>search Gemmie

man 5 resolver 'domain' and 'search' are not very useful. If you
were to be using multicast DNS (I doubt you are), this would lay you open
to some really nasty hacks. An example of such a service is 'avahi'

Old guy