Router/Switch configuration not able to resolve web site

[oscarse]

I have an 8 port router set with the WAN port connected to an internet modem ... the DHCP is turned off and all PC's have been issued IP addresses ... port 8 is in turn connected to Port 1 of a 4 port Wireless Router with its WAN port and DHCP disabled ... the Wireless connections and the remaining 3 ports have been assigned IP addresses in the same IP prefix.

Problem; any pc connected to the 4 port wireless router (acting as a switch) are able to communicate with the internet and other PC's/peripherals on the 8 port router ... the Primary DNS setting is set to the ISP DNS server address ... the secondary is set to the WAN IP of the eight port router ... up until now I hadn't noticed any problems until I attempted to activate a licence via the eopen.microsoft.com site ... for some reason either the primary DNS is not resolving the address and or it is not being passed back to the machine making the request

I hope there is some subtle tweak I can make but not sure where to start.

This is a peer to peer network with a mixture of XP Pro and soon to be phased out Win 2k machines also using netbios over IP for sharing files and peripherals

 

[WhoKilledKenny]

I don't see why the secondary DNS is pointing to the WAN side of the hub, your not running DNS there? If the primary is busy and the workstation tries to resolve using the secondary, It's not going to find anything there either. I would just remove the secondary or ask your ISP if they have a secondary DNS that you can point to.

 

[oscarse]

I think there is something else going on ... I looked at the secondary router and it had a filter for https turned off ... I'm thinking that is a WAN side filter for the DLINK but not sure ... as I am not using the WAN side of the second router I am expecting this should not affect the DNS results ... I went to another location with my laptop and have only been able to connect once to the eopen site ... it is now complaining about a DNS error.

I am running Ethereal and cannot see any attemp to poll for this address even when I hit the refresh button, reboot, connect to other HTTPS sites with no issue but still no joy with this one ... is there a way to capture the status bar errors I can see an error is there but cannot see the actual text.

 

[oscarse]

When everything has been eliminated there can only be one item starring you in the face (Sorry for the lame quote Holmes) ... Would YOU believe it!!! My ISP has an error on its Primary DNS Server. Thank you Ethereal!!! I captured the error from their DNS server and called the ISP and once they checked the Server they confirmed the issue.

Learned a few new tricks now too.

ipconfig /flushdns very usefull to clear out the DNS cache on your PC

https ip addresses must be explicitly entered on the address bar ... I did a DNS lookup for the eopen.microsoft.com site and it would not connect just by enterring the ip address ... had to type

https://ipaddress

 

[oscarse]

Sorry forgot to add what led me on this wild goose chase in the first place ... the thought that the second Router was at fault was that the PC's hooked into the primary router TCPIP specify to use the primary routers DNS ... the secondary router PC's I explicitly configured the TCPIP to use the ISP's Primary DNS server bypassing the primary router (and because the Primary server was incorrect for this address it was causing the failure) ... the primary router has both the ISP's primary and secondary DNS addresses so can only presume it went to the secondary server (which had the right address)