Domain Nameserver Not Responding
Special Notes for Eudora
About DNS
The topic of DNS and the associated protocol BIND can fill entire books. (It is actually pretty interesting. I can recommend some titles...)
Most of the programs you will be using on the Internet are clients. Clients are those programs which require the attentions of a server. A mail client requires the services of a mail server in order to send and receive mail. A web browser hops from http server to http server requesting the data belonging to each page as it comes across them.
As you might imagine, computers aren't as comfortable with pronounceable names as they are with numbers. The pronounceable names are only there for folk, like me, who are not very capable when it comes to memorizing numbers like 204.17.195.100. Every host on the Internet has a unique number. DNS is the process by which a client translates a name into an IP number and finds a particular host on the Net.
Sometimes it does not work as planned.
Domain Nameserver Not Responding
Unfortunately, when a network client reports this error, it does not necessarily indicate where the problem really lies. Taken very literally it simply means that the client cannot converse with the nameserver. This may mean that the nameserver has died (unlikely); it may mean that the name your program is trying to resolve does not exist or has been misspelled; it may mean that your modem has hung up and your networking protocol is unaware that it no longer has a connection; it may indicate still other difficulties.
Start by performing the easiest and most obvious checks:
- If you have an external modem (a highly desirable option), you can simply glance at it and look to see whether the "Connect" (usually labeled CD) light is lit. If it is dark, your modem has hung up. If you use an internal modem, you just don't have that option. Do not trust any "lights" that a software program puts on display for you (e.g., Win95). If the software is broken, the modem might have hung up the line while the monitoring program blithely continues to believe that all is copesetic.
- Try a different name. If you're using a web browser, try one of your bookmarks that you are sure is correctly spelled. Try a big commercial site like: www.sco.com, www.microsoft.com, www.apple.com, etc. If none of them work, then something is clearly broken.
- Try a different network tool. If your web browser is the program
that is giving you trouble, try to check your mail. If you can check
your mail ok, then it is probably safe to say that your connection and
at least the local VNI service is working correctly.
Try yet another network tool. The ultimate pure nameserver/connection tester is a program called ping. It is a good tool because it does absolutely nothing complex; it simply attempts to send a network packet to the machine you request and waits for an echo to come back. If you use Windows, you probably have a ping already installed: go to a DOS prompt and type:ping www.vineyard.net
Mac OSX has a full unix suite of network tools (including ping). In the Applications:Utilities directory, you will find a tool called Terminal which will give you a unix command line. You can type:ping www.vineyard.net
Testing with ping probably deserves an entire FAQ unto itself, but here are some easy things you can try. If you know the IP number, for a particular machine (I only know about 3 or 4 [chagrin], primary machine for vineyard.net is 204.17.195.100) try pinging it first via it's name, and second via it's IP number. The pings will bounce off the same computer, but if nameservice is really dead, only the attempt using the number will succeed. If both succeed, nameservice is ok; and we have to look elsewhere for the real problem. If both fail, nameservice is probably ok, but your connection is probably dead (for one reason or another). - Reboot the blasted machine. This is a pain and wastes working time, but often software simply becomes wedged and ceases to work. Having rebooted, you are at least reasonably assured that your difficulties are not the result of a program you were just running. If your problem goes away, but eventually resurfaces, and is yet again repaired by a reboot - you clearly have some sort of misconfiguration or a software conflict on your machine. Tracking the problem down is a process of elimination and can be frustrating and time consuming. It might be time to call a consultant in to do the work for you.
Special Notes for Eudora
In the particular case of Eudora, this error frequently means that Eudora has simply become bored while waiting for your modem to dial the phone and call our service.
If folks are fortunate enough to have a hard-wired connection to their mail server (students in dorms, corporate employees, etc.) The mail server will respond to a request in tiny fractions of a second.
Typically, most mail clients will wait 40 seconds or so after they have made a request for a connection to a mail server. Unfortunately, it can sometimes take longer than that for a modem to dial a number, synchronize, and then authorize your connection. Meanwhile, your mail client complains becuase it has "timed-out."
Easiest solution is to simply ignore the error. By the time your mail program reports the error, you modem will probably have made a successful connection. At this point, if you ask the mail client to check your mail again it will only take the modem 2-3 seconds to provide the necessary conversation.
Most elegant solution is to convince your mail program to wait longer. How this is accomplished will depend on the individual program. Eudora on a Mac (I do not know whether Eudora on a Windows machine is as sophisticated) has the ability to add new features to the program by dropping plugins into the "Eudora" folder containing the mailboxes. One such plugin called Wagner's Eudora Prefs, allows you to increase the timeout intervals.