DNS resolution Issue nslookup works, but web/ping doesn't

Question

I've got a computer having DNS problems with one address only, "microsoftonline.com". Ping doesnt resolve IP but nslookup does correctly. It works from other machines. It is WinXP with no proxies

I have tried google's DNS servers with no avail. Any ideas?

The ping error is "Ping request could not find host...."

Answer 1

Check your hosts file, although I don't think that's likely to be the cause.

Disable the XP firewall and test.

Try net stop dnscache then net start dnscache. This seems to do something that ipconfig /flushdns doesn't, IMX.

Delete the arp cache: netsh interface ip delete arpcache

Check your routing table: route print

Answer 2

Try flushing your DNS cache on the machine by running this from the command line:

ipconfig /flushdns

Answer 3

Before going crazy resetting everything, let's try some simpler tests:

• Can you ping google.com?
• Can you ping google DNS: ping 8.8.4.4 ?
• Do you have multiple IPs/Default gateways that may be conflicting ( output from: ipconfig /all)
• Are you using both IPv6 and IPv4 on your network?
• Can you verify the following services are running: DNS Client Network Location Awareness Remote Procedure Call (RPC) ? (open task manager, under services tab)
• Are you running a firewall?
• What is the output of ping -a 64.4.6.100 ? (this is the IP of microsoftonline.com)

Overall, this sounds like it could be a number of things including DNS hijacking, corrupt network somewhere, or something else strange with Windows. One post I found fixed the same issue with Windows XP by uninstalling and re-installing SP3 (weird).