Why is server sometimes down?

Win2K Server, problem I think with network card caching?

• I'm running a Windows 2000 Advanced Server. I have IIS, DNS, and few other services installed. My problem is that when I put a new Domain Name (DomN from here on) into the DNS server, I can NOT ping locally on the server right away. Sometimes I add a DomN in DNS and everything works fine and I ping it immediately. Other times I add a DomN and nothing pings. Then if I wait like an hour or more it will start to ping correctly. The last DomN I added did this exact case (nslookup worked, ping didn't). I then tried about a couple of hours later, MAKING NO CHANGES TO DNS or anything else, and ping worked. What I'm doing is going to a 'Command Window' and using the 'ping' and 'nslookup' commands to verify information. I know the Mirosoft DNS server is working, because as soon as I add a DomN I can go to a command window and do a nslookup and get the correct response (everytime). However if in that same window I try to ping the new DomN added I get "Request timed out.". Some experiments I have tried, which may help find answer. 1.) After adding DomN and problem happened, I rebooted the server. When it came back up, and I logged back in, everything worked. 2.) Another time when problem occured, I went in the network card properties, looked around, then clicked the "OK" buttons to get out. This seemed to cause the network card to reinitialize (I saw a momentary stop in traffic) and everything worked. To me I think there has to be some settings in the Registry that can effect the network card and any caching it may do. I'm guessing that some registry value is telling the network to cache information. My old NT4 server didn't do this, but I ran a DNS server that wasn't microsoft. The response I looking for is probably the registry settings I need to change to get rid of this problem. They could be related to DNS (but don't think so) or more likely to some settings about how the card performs. In case you want to know why this is such a BIG deal to me. Everytime I add a new customer I immediately want to DNS the DomN and add their web site. The problem is the DomN may not be in the InterNic until later that day or next. But I need to have everything up and working. I setup IIS to host the site, then I go and add FrontPage 2000 Extensions, finally I go to add users to the site for login. I found the easist way to add users in through FrontPage 2000 Administrator, which goes through the browser. However FrontPage 2000 Administration works only buy using the DomN (hostname) associated with the web site. So if I can't ping the DomN through a command window, a local browser window won't find it either. Therefore, it can take me many hours waiting until I finally get a new site added, when it should only take a few minutes. I have the SP3 insalled, and all the lastest patches. The network card itself is a "Intel(R) PRO/100+ Server Adapter (PILA8470B)". Network card Driver information. Driver Provider:INTEL Driver Date:2/25/2002 Driver Version:6.1.3.0 I remeber about two patches ago installing some updated network driver, but this did NOT help solve the problem. I have 64 IPs bound to the card. The DNS setting on the card is set to a local IP address, while the backup DNS setting is another server.

• Answer:

  s58smith... You said: "Somehow the DNS order on the card wasn't being obeyed. Now I shouldn't have had to change the DNS entries on the card, since according to what I found the order (Primary, Secondary) is supposed to work. But once this was done everything has continued to work. Your registry setting then worked and continued to work the rest of the night. Just means that if my DNS service ever fails I won't go anywhere on that Win2K server." The following discussion of primary/secondary DNS may interest you: "You have a probably heard or seen the terms "primary DNS server" and "secondary DNS server". Actually a DNS server (the computer/software) is not specifically "primary" or "secondary". A DNS server can be primary for one zone (domain) and secondary for another. In fact, Simple DNS Plus can be both primary and secondary for the same zone." and: "Please note - registrars requiring 2 DNS servers sometimes refer to these as "primary" and "secondary". This has absolutely nothing to do with the actual primary/secondary functionality, and it doesn't matter in which order you enter your DNS servers for the domain name. This is just a list of servers, and there could be 1, 2, or any number of DNS servers listed for a domain name." From JH Software's discussion of DNS: http://www.jhsoft.com/help/ht_primsec.htm Simple DNS Plus is a JH Software product - 'a simple yet powerful DNS Server for Windows' (all versions), and costs $79 to register for one machine. You can look it over here, and there's a 14-day free trial: http://www.jhsoft.com/ The solution you came up with will likely work just fine, but I thought I'd point you to an alternative to Microsoft. Please do not rate this answer until you are satisfied that the answer cannot be improved upon by means of a dialog established through the "Request for Clarification" process. sublime1-ga Searches done, via Google: primary secondary DNS server ://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=primary+secondary+DNS+server&btnG=Google+Search