The basic setup at my house is a DSL modem connected by USB to my flatmate's computer (it's the more convenient one to the phone jack), then WinXP's built-in internet sharing giving me net access on this machine.
It's been working fine for around a year, but just recently I've had major problems with resolving domain names on my box, while the net continues to work fine on my flatmate's. A reset of my machine does nothing, but a reset of his fixes the problem for a couple of hours before it occurs again.
I've tried restarting the DNS service on his machine when the problem happens, but no luck. We both run ZoneAlarm Pro but neither of us have made any changes to the settings, so a firewall problem seems unlikely.
Can anyone possibly come up with some suggestions as to what might be wrong? For reference, my flatmate's box is running WinXP SP2 and I'm running SP1.
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Anonymous2006-02-23 11:03
Hm, as a Ph.D. Computer Scientist, I think you have to install Linux or Firefox.
As a 5th year CS student I ask you, what changes did you and your flatmate do to your systems around the time the problems started appearing? For while I know jack of fixing Windows problems I know that computer systems don't just break without someone fucking with them. One of you, your flatmate, or your ISP is to blame.
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Anonymous2006-02-23 11:43
I know jack of fixing Windows problems I know that computer systems don't just break without someone fucking with them.
The second statement proves the first.
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Anonymous2006-02-23 11:51
Use Ethereal or a similar network sniffer to see what's happening on the wire. i.e. Are the DNS packets even being sent?
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Anonymous2006-02-23 17:02
Furryfox will make your problems worse.
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Anonymous2006-02-23 17:13
The moment someone feels compelled to list their qualifications, they've just lost. Especially when those qualifications aren't much to talk about...
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Anonymous2006-02-23 17:41
>>8
As a Professor of Psychology I feel qualified to say "Whoosh"
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Anonymous2006-02-23 18:15
>>8
SHUT UP, YOU ARE USING TACTICS SIMILAR TO HITLER YOU NAZI
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82006-02-23 20:53
SIEG HEIL!
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Anonymous2006-02-24 21:09
>>4
(I'm OP) To the best of my knowledge no changes were made on either my computer or my flatmate's, besides standard user stuff like files being downloaded and such.
>>12
OP again. I've tried using Ethereal. DNS request packets leave my computer, arrive at my flatmate's, then get sent to the ISP's DNS servers. The ISP doesn't send a response back.
However, if a DNS request originates from my flatmate's machine the ISP DOES send a response.
This confuses me. Shouldn't the ISP's DNS servers treat all DNS requests the same way?
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Anonymous2006-02-24 21:59
OP once more. This is possibly related: Ethereal has shown a large number of unusual DNS requests being sent out from my flatmate's machine to my ISP's DNS servers. They're unusual in that they're "Standard query PTR [name]" instead of the "Standard query A [name]" that DNS requests being sent from Firefox and IE are.
Should I be worried about this? Could it be at all relevant?
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Anonymous2006-02-24 22:29
>>14
That's probably just the DHCP Client service doing its thing.
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Anonymous2006-02-25 22:41
Bump.
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Anonymous2006-02-25 23:01
If restarting your flatmates computer fixes the problem (albeit temporarily) then the issue is with his machine, I would say. Change your DNS. Yes, I know it's probably assigned by DHCP, but just ipconfig, get your ip and subnet (192.168.0.2, 255.255.255.0) and use your ISPs DNS directly, or find a free one on the interweb to use. If problems persist, it smells like a firewall issue on your flatmates computer. That, or spyware. Mind you, if he's connecting the modem to his machine via USB, there's no way in hell I'd trust him with my internets. I suggest you set it up via ethernet. USB adds random problems (like this one) so it could be what's at fault.
Actually, buy a router.
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Anonymous2006-02-26 1:00
>>17
(OP) I've tried changing my DNS settings to use my ISP's server directly. Hopefully it'll bypass the problem, though I can't know for certain until some hours pass. Thanks for the suggestion.