Internet DNS Cache on switch network

[madrue]

Hello everyone,

Heres my problem.

Here at the office we have a network or 2 pc's connected through a 8 port switch. The network works fine for file and print sharing but we have a problem with the internet sharing.
We have 1 computer connection directly to the internet and the other computer sharing the internet through a proxy set-up automatically by Internet Explorer.
After both computers using the internet for about 3 hours, the slave computer sharing the internet, losses its internet sharing over the network. It comes up with a error page not found page. We use Windows 2000. I had a look at the Event viewer that stated the following:
"The DNS Client service could not contact any DNS servers for a repeated number of attempts. For the next 30 seconds the DNS Client service will not use the network to avoid further network performance problems. It will resume its normal behavior after that. If this problem persists, verify your TCP/IP configuration, specifically check that you have a preferred (and possibly an alternate) DNS server configured. If the problem continues, verify network conditions to these DNS servers or contact your network administrator."

I think this means that the DNS Cache has filled up.
How would I go about clearing it or stopping this from happening in the future?

If i restart the master computer, the internet sharing then works fine but I would prefer not to have to restart the computer every 2 to 3 hours.

Thank-you anyone who replies to this topic.

Rupert

 

[bcastner]

This is not a DNS cache issue, but a proxy failure.

Throw out the proxy and consider the alternatives:

1. I would use a one-port hardware router. The Linksys BEFSR11 is around $25.

2. Proxy alternatives:

. ICS is free with Windows and would work fine. See Steve Winograd's terrific Help site:

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/

. Wingate for two users is very good and free:

http://wingate.deerfield.com/

. Many use the freeware AnalogX proxy with good results:

http://www.analogx.com/contents/news.htm

You should remember that an entry in the DNS cache is held for only a short time. If you have a high rate of DNS failures, you could use the Analogx DNS cache tool. This increases the time cache entries are held, and decreases the time DNS failed entries are stored. It works quite well. It can be found on the site from my last link above.