"Cannot communicate with primary dns"

thatleftlooksrig · 11-06-2008, 22:04

HI everyone,

Sorry my first post is a request for help!! I have been a lurker on the forum for sometime, however have neither had a problem, nor a solution, so I have remained a lurker. Until now!!

I have the Virgin TV, Phone and Internet Service, and have had for some years now. (Since it was all cable:tell and then :ntl etc).

Over maybe the last 3 months, my internet connection randomly drops out. There is only one other computer on the network; a PC which is wired to the router. However when the connection drops it happens on them both. It drops from as short a time as 5 secs to 10 minutes. Webpages don't load and then MSN signs out etc, and the complete connection is lost.

I run the Vista "Diagnose and Repair" tool. This is when I get "Cannot communicate with primary DNS server (192.168.1.1)" message. Vista asks me if I want to reset my connection. This usually fixes the problem, but it will occasionally tell me that "there still seems to be a problem" even after doing this, at which point an additional reset usually fixes the problem.

It got to the stage where I purchased a new router - ZyXEL one . Still no joy. Anyone else had/having this problem? And any ideas how to fix it?

I live in North Belfast in Northern Ireland. Both computers run on Windows Vista Home. Both run perfectly smooth with no signs of spyware or any viruses. Any ideas would be appreciated. Many thanks,

Matt

moaningmags · 11-06-2008, 22:36

The DNS server address 192.168.1.1 is your router.
Looks as though that is what's dropping the connection.
Disconnect it, try a direct connection to the modem.

Even if your modem was turned off you should still have connection to the router.

thatleftlooksrig · 11-06-2008, 22:38

Hey, thanks for the reply. I haven't tried connecting directly to the cable cause I'd need to sit there all night lol cause the dropping is so random; happens about 4 times in an hour and then could be OK for 4 hours! - But I replaced the modem so I don't see how that is the problem? Or what I would need to change to fix it?

r00t · 11-06-2008, 22:40

Norton firewall can also cause this "Cannot communicate with primary DNS server (192.168.1.1)"

thatleftlooksrig · 11-06-2008, 22:43

Hey thanks for the reply! Cool only I don't have Norton firewall either! I dont' have any of those things installed. I reformatted this computer too thinking that may be the problem; so I'm just using windows basics stuff!!

moaningmags · 11-06-2008, 23:21

It's definitely a communication problem between the router and computer and given both comps fail at the same time I highly doubt something on both pc's is causing the issue at the same exact moment.
A router I had used to crash when the kids used MSN, I updated the firmware and no crashes since.

hoggie · 11-06-2008, 23:29

does your new router have a hard wired firewall. commanly known as NAT.
if it has, make sure the firmwire is up to date.
then switch off windows fire wall i had this conflict for ages and all did to fix it was switched off windows firewall.
in fact i have no firewall switched on, on my laptop and haven't had any trouble what so ever for months.

Ps. I have three laptops an xbox and Wii connected to my cheap belkin mimo router

shawty · 12-06-2008, 00:25

Im sure this is a problem at Virgins end. This is one of many I have read with connection interuptions over the past few days just dropping out at random times and it is happening to me also. Been doing for about a week.

moaningmags · 12-06-2008, 08:46

How can the OP losing connection to 192.168.1.1 which is his routers dns be a fault at Virgins end?

shawty · 12-06-2008, 11:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by moaningmags

How can the OP losing connection to 192.168.1.1 which is his routers dns be a fault at Virgins end?

Why couldnt it be? Im having the same problems the past week, it has never happened before, I have also heard other people having the same problems. All this leads me to believe that the random drop outs of connection is something to do with Virgin.

12-06-2008, 13:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by shawty

Why couldnt it be? Im having the same problems the past week, it has never happened before, I have also heard other people having the same problems. All this leads me to believe that the random drop outs of connection is something to do with Virgin.

Any IP addresses that start with 192 are purely to do with your Router or PC as they are not public IPs and as Virginmedia only issue public IPs then the problem can only be with the equipment which must be faulty.

Dark Fiber · 12-06-2008, 13:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by moaningmags

How can the OP losing connection to 192.168.1.1 which is his routers dns be a fault at Virgins end?

Surely the client computers have the private address of the router set as their DNS server, the router then consults the public address of VM's DNS server for the IP info itself. Seems likely that it is a VM problem, but the error messages are being "short sighted" and thus misleading.

shawty · 12-06-2008, 14:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by whydoIneedatech

Any IP addresses that start with 192 are purely to do with your Router or PC as they are not public IPs and as Virginmedia only issue public IPs then the problem can only be with the equipment which must be faulty.

Well it either seems that a lot of routers have started playing up with the same problem or Virgin have changed some settings or done something and it has caused a few mishaps.

See above also. Im still thinking this is a Virgin issue rather than something to do with mine and others routers.

12-06-2008, 19:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by shawty

Well it either seems that a lot of routers have started playing up with the same problem or Virgin have changed some settings or done something and it has caused a few mishaps.

See above also. Im still thinking this is a Virgin issue rather than something to do with mine and others routers.

I have a router that I am hardwired through and my daughter is wireless, my router has been up since August 07 without a glitch it is a D-Link 524 the are known problems with the Belkin 7230 router which require firmware updates, so the is the possibility of other Belkin routers having similar problems.

I and many other people have no problems with DNS from Virgin as all they do is provide you with the connection via a modem and a public WAN IP address for you to get online, try a direct connection between modem and Computer as this will remove the 192 IP address which is your private LAN IP.

Jon T · 12-06-2008, 19:46

I will say that this issue probably has nothing to do with Virgin.

If your equipment connected to you router has a DNS entry that matches the router address, then it looks like the DNS service on your router is not running.

When something connected to your network requests a network resource by URL, it query the DNS server's it knows about(ie your router), your router in turn will have a DNS cache, if the IP/URL required is not in it's cache it will then forward a request to the DNS servers that it has been told about, these will be the addresses I have mentioned further up this post.

If Virgin have changed their service somehow and your router can't talk to their DNS server's, you would get 404(page not found) etc, you wouldn't get DNS failure messages, this is because the router will still be responding to you, but the answer from it would be that it cannot resolve the address for you.

Virgin cannot produce the error you are getting, the error relates to your internal network, i'm pretty sure of that.