DNS Problems

[Keane]

Can anyone tell me if;

194.168.4.100
194.168.8.100

are still valid DNS addresses for Virgin? I've been suffering quite a lot of short disconnections and according to MSN Messenger it is either DNS problems or DNS and Key Port problems. I have a wireless router, but this computer is connected directly to the router and using the Router settings i've tried setting DNS to automatic and manaul using that address yet I still get disconnected.

[PAYNEARDO]

yep they are still the ntl dns's but after I had probs with NTL's I have been using open dns which are 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. and not had any problems yet .......... :)

Their web addy is http://www.opendns.com/

[techyguy4]

Hi, you can also use the following VM DNS servers.
62.253.162.237
194.168.4.237

[Keane]

Thanks for the addresses guys. I'll keep a note of them incase my connection craps out.

[Morden]

Just set obtain and IP address automatically in your network settings. Manualy setting DNS on any network can cause a whole load of problems, unless you have full access to view the networks servers when you set up and as only network admins have this kind of access the answer is dont.

Did you get your router to renew your IP settings or reboot both modem and router, this may help rectify the problem ?

[Stuart]

Just set obtain and IP address automatically in your network settings. Manualy setting DNS on any network can cause a whole load of problems, unless you have full access to view the networks servers when you set up and as only network admins have this kind of access the answer is dont.


While I agree with your comments about using manually set DNS servers (after all, you cant tell if Virgin have changed the DNS IPs if you do this, whereas setting it via DHCP will reset the DNS IP when it renews the machine IP), surely it would only cause a lot of problems if the DNS ip is wrong, or if Virgin regularly change the DNS IP (which they really shouldn't be doing as it would cause them a lot of problems.

[Paul]

Manualy setting DNS on any network can cause a whole load of problemsWhat problems exactly ?

[Morden]

Http/HTTPs being slow or even unable to access is one biggie. The main giveaway being you cant access webpages anymore

Or even getting a network connection at all in some cases.

Though only if the DNS changes from what you set it to. But if you manually set that is a possibilty only if the addresses of the DNS servers change.

[Paul]

Just to make this clear - manually setting DNS will not cause any problems unless you use the wrong IP address. If they are correct then it wont have any effect whatsoever. DNS has no effect on getting a network connection.

[Keane]

Normally it is set to manual, however that doesn't seem to stop my connection from constantly dying from DNS and "your DNS is unable to resolve IP addresses" when I run the Connection Repair feature of Windows Live Messenger (Who'd have thought MS could do something useful).

It is set to manual now, and and died a few minutes before I posted

[Stuart]

Normally it is set to manual, however that doesn't seem to stop my connection from constantly dying from DNS and "your DNS is unable to resolve IP addresses" when I run the Connection Repair feature of Windows Live Messenger (Who'd have thought MS could do something useful).

It is set to manual now, and and died a few minutes before I posted

That would indicate either faulty DNS server, or some problem with your connection preventing access to the DNS server.

The only time DNS is used is when your computer (or other device such as a console) is trying to find the relevant IP from a server's DNS name).

Unless your device is attempting to resolve an IP, your connection will not be affected.

[Keane]

Well everything was running fine until Saturday night. I normally would have just blamed it on maintenance but none should be done here until tonight.