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Several times a day, my Internet connection stops working on my Windows 8 computer (it's not the network, other computers on the network work fine). It happens on all of my Windows 8 computers (individually, not at the same time) and doesn't fix until I flush my DNS.
All three of the computers have their settings synchronised through my Microsoft account.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?
Jase
Posted 2014-04-23T07:06:59.710
Reputation: 131
1Where is DHCP enabled (The router)? Is the DNS dynamic or static in the LAN adapter properties (+1 good clear question)? – Dave – 2014-04-23T07:23:24.880
1@Psycogeek The only disruption is in resolution. Active connections are fine, and so is pinging by IP. As I said in the question, it happens several times a day. Browser is irrelevant as it affects the entire computer. I don't have any additional software being used to connect to the network. – Jase – 2014-04-23T07:49:39.437
@DaveRook DHCP is enabled on the router (just a wireless home router), DNS is set to dynamic on the LAN adaptor (setting to static isn't a solution, as two of the computers this affects are used on networks that filter external DNS requests). – Jase – 2014-04-23T07:50:14.760
Can you try the same thing with safe mode? I know it's horrible to work in but it may help to pin point possible issues – Dave – 2014-04-23T08:03:25.537
I can attempt this tomorrow, but considering that it happens by itself randomly, it'll be hard to reproduce reliably. – Jase – 2014-04-23T08:09:59.150
Yes, agreed, it would be a nightmare but it may rule out things.. However, and this may be a bigger pain, first I would try taking a computer to a different network/location and testing it. – Dave – 2014-04-23T08:14:38.973
1Also, try adding the DNS servers... Set the first to point to your router, but set the second to 8.8.8.8 just to see what happens. Next question, how many computers are on this network? What are the OS's that are resolving fine? I assume yo have no server – Dave – 2014-04-23T08:38:49.083
Just to answer what I can now: It happens at other network locations, and it's irrespective of the secondary DNS - I suspect my cache is somehow continuously going 'bad'.
If you count phones and tablets, there are about 16 devices on the network, the only computers that have the problem are my Windows 8 computers (two x86, one ARM) that are synced through my Microsoft Account.
Computers and other OS's that work fine are iOS, Android, Mac (one of my laptops), and Windows 7. – Jase – 2014-04-23T12:15:55.543
There is something called DNS cache pollution (although I thought it was just for servers) you may find useful to read about? – Dave – 2014-04-23T12:18:28.043
when it goes bad, is it bad for all requests? Can you run an nslookup from the command line to a new address and intermittently get back results? Any chance you're running a continuous backup application on any one of these computers and operating on a low bandwidth connection? I've had intermittent problems with DNS resolution on Windows computers when my backup application fully saturates my upload capability – Nick – 2014-04-24T20:07:19.060