[SOLVED] New to Forum. Have question about DNS

[Wristan]

Hi,

This is my first time posting here, but I need to try and put this issue to rest. So my internet seems like it running okay, speed test is good, no lag in the connect at all. I was having an issue with my Ryzen 7 2700X machine, but I found the problem. cFosSpeed was installed on my computer and I don't know if I installed it by mistake or if the MSI Dragon Center did it. Regardless I went from barely getting 200-300/Mbps to 750-850/Mbps(wired) and 500-600/Mbps(Wireless). While doing so I ran the troubleshooter for networking on Windows 10(Ver. 2004) and I got this, "Your computer appears to be correctly configured, but the device or resource (DNS server) is not responding."

On both my primary and secondary i have this when I run the troubleshooter, but they are online and I can access everything. I did for a short time manage to clear this on my Ryzen machine, but it's back and the steps before did not fix it sadly. The steps I did was rebooting the gateway, uninstalling and reinstalling drivers, and using CMD as admin to run the following:

ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /registerdns
netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset
ipconfig /renew

So the next thing I did was setup my phone as a mobile hotspot and see if the above would still persist. It didn't on the Ryzen Machine, but my Intel machine still had it with the Mobile Hotspot. I thought I also had it, if the Intel machine was fine too I could've chalked it up to my ISP side of things(Xfinity). Yet since it only yielded half success I'm not sure what to think.

I guess my big question is should I let this bother me if everything is working fine or should I continue to figure out what the root cause is? I really want to say its Xfinity being Xfinity, but even if I talk to customer support I feel I won't make much headway. Which is why I'm asking for anyone who maybe much smarting then I in networking issue if they may know of any other way to narrow down this "issue." I mean personally the only thing complaining is Win10 being like, "Hey you have a problem, but you don't?" shrugs.

Okay well I'll leave things there and if need more information I'll try, but I'm only good at basic troubleshooting, so be patient with me if asking me to do a lot of tasks to try things.

 

[rocktalkrock]

You might find the DNS Benchmark utility useful to analyze your setup.

https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

 

[Wristan]

Update: So I don't know what changed, but I tried my mobile hotspot again and both computer no longer show, "Your computer appears to be correctly configured, but the device or resource (DNS server) is not responding ." So it maybe the gateway and Xfinity. I'm going to monitor this on my mobile hotspot for about an hour and see if it stays consistent.

 

[bill001g]

In many cases it is your router or your ISP causing this.

The default way this runs is your router acts as a proxy and uses the ISP DNS server. ISP DNS tend to be very poor performance and the router proxy function has a history of causing issues in some router firmware releases.

Your best option is to set the dns in your pc to something like 8.8.8.8. Then your pc will directly talk to the google dns. You can also use 1.1.1.1 which is what I use lately because it supports the dns encryption features built into many of the newer browsers.

 

[Wristan]

In many cases it is your router or your ISP causing this.

The default way this runs is your router acts as a proxy and uses the ISP DNS server. ISP DNS tend to be very poor performance and the router proxy function has a history of causing issues in some router firmware releases.

Your best option is to set the dns in your pc to something like 8.8.8.8. Then your pc will directly talk to the google dns. You can also use 1.1.1.1 which is what I use lately because it supports the dns encryption features built into many of the newer browsers.

Yeah I just found that it does look to be either my Xfinity Gateway or ISP for this matter. Unfortunately Xfinity has locked the DNS and I am unable to use public DNS like 8.8.8.8. Using my Metropcs Mobile Hotspot though did allow me to have my computer connect to it and use there DNS. I have had the X1 Gateway for a while and maybe it just isn't working as well as it should be. I rent the equipment so I can exchange it whenever I want for a new one. Though I contact Xfinity and see if they can reset anything on their end to see if it fixing this first.

It's not causing any issues to me though. Everything working fine and I'm getting my full internet speed. It's only bothers me since I'm being told there's an issue, but there isn't.

 

[bill001g]

I have never seen a ISP lock a dns. Maybe you can't set it in the router but you should be able to set it under the IPV4 settings for your nic.

You can test it pretty easy.

Just use the command

NSLOOKUP www.tomshardware.com 8.8.8.8

You will see that the server name in the response. If they actually block other dns servers you will get no response.

 

[Wristan]

I have never seen a ISP lock a dns. Maybe you can't set it in the router but you should be able to set it under the IPV4 settings for your nic.

You can test it pretty easy.

Just use the command

NSLOOKUP www.tomshardware.com 8.8.8.8

You will see that the server name in the response. If they actually block other dns servers you will get no response.

Yeah, I can do that, but I read on Xfinity Forum and even been confirmed by Xfinity Forum Members that even if I set DNS in the IPV4 it won't work with how Xfinity gateway prevents people from manually setting it. It's weird, I hate Xfinity, but they're the fastest ISP in my area. I can't get 1000/Mbps speed through AT&T the fastest thing I can get is 20/Mbps through AT&T and that's a major downgrade. I'm going to contact them.

Xfinity is just awful company when it come to wanting to manually tweak setting. Heck, you use to be able to change the 5 Ghz band so you wouldn't overlap, but even that has been taken away.

 

[bill001g]

I suspect you have a bunch of people that have no clue on that forum. I really doubt they block the most common dns in the world.

Check it yourself. The nslookup command will quickly tell you if the dns is being messed with.

The solution for that is to use cloudflare for your DNS. It uses encrypted dns over https. It is designed to prevent the ISP and others from spying on you DNS. Chrome has this option on by defualt. Firefox also supports it but I am not sure if you have to turn it on.

So set your DNS to 1.1.1.1 instead. Then go to chrome and type 1.1.1.1/help.

Note you could also use a free vpn service and configure it so only 8.8.8.8 get sent through.

Still I doubt they are blocking dns servers it really serves no purpose. China for example wants to prevent access to certain sites but why would a ISP care what service you used to look up IP addresses.

 

[Wristan]

I suspect you have a bunch of people that have no clue on that forum. I really doubt they block the most common dns in the world.

Check it yourself. The nslookup command will quickly tell you if the dns is being messed with.

The solution for that is to use cloudflare for your DNS. It uses encrypted dns over https. It is designed to prevent the ISP and others from spying on you DNS. Chrome has this option on by defualt. Firefox also supports it but I am not sure if you have to turn it on.

So set your DNS to 1.1.1.1 instead. Then go to chrome and type 1.1.1.1/help.

Note you could also use a free vpn service and configure it so only 8.8.8.8 get sent through.

Still I doubt they are blocking dns servers it really serves no purpose. China for example wants to prevent access to certain sites but why would a ISP care what service you used to look up IP addresses.

Okay so I did the above and it seems like it worked. Networking isn't something I'm good with and so this is all new to me.
I still get the DNS mesaage when I troubleshoot. So would it be the Gateway at fault? I mean if I use my Metropcs Mobile hotspot and it fine, but the instant I go back through the Gateway I encounter the issue then I feel that it's not communicating as it should. I can be wrong.

1.1.1.1 — One of the Internet’s Fastest, Privacy-First DNS Resolver

✌️✌️ Browse a faster, more private internet.

1.1.1.1

Google said to copy and paste this on community forums. I don't really know what any of these means in details. I know it does show it did see some of the stuff, but somethings did come back no. I hope my lack of knowledge isn't being to problematic. I am trying.

 

[bill001g]

That is not google that is cloudflare Not sure what that is mine showed if dns was encrypted. That link comes up broken for me but I have ad and script blockers running so it might be the problem.

You must set the DNS in the IPV4 settings. If the nslookup command works it means DNS is fine. If you have not change the DNS in your PC then it is likely still using the ISP dns and those have more problems.
You can disable IPv6 while you are in there also. If you happen to have IPv6 support form your ISP you can get strange issues when some sites use ipv6 and others ipv4

 

[Wristan]

That is not google that is cloudflare Not sure what that is mine showed if dns was encrypted. That link comes up broken for me but I have ad and script blockers running so it might be the problem.

You must set the DNS in the IPV4 settings. If the nslookup command works it means DNS is fine. If you have not change the DNS in your PC then it is likely still using the ISP dns and those have more problems.
You can disable IPv6 while you are in there also. If you happen to have IPv6 support form your ISP you can get strange issues when some sites use ipv6 and others ipv4

HITS COMPUTER HARDER Okay, "Your computer appears to be correctly configured, but the device or resource (DNS server) is not responding" is not longer showing up. I did do exactly as you said above and set it manually in IPV4. I didn't know I should've disabled IPV6 I think that's what made the difference. Thanks for the help, sorry for taking so long to get it right. So does this mean there's an issue with Xfinity side of things?

Edit: Oh, interesting. So on my other computer I was curious to try something. I left it on automatic to grab the DNS for IPV4, but disabled IPV6 and it fine through Xfinity's default IPV4. I'm not sure what this mean, but now everything is working 100%.