Vista - Cannot connect to primary DNS server

Im having trouble connecting to the internet on my desktop pc. I have a wireless network and connect to it by PCI network card on my desktop and built in wireless on several laptops that are in the house. The internet on the laptops works fine and is fairly speedy.

However, for the past day the internet on my desktop has been incredibly slow and keeps timing out, i.e. not loading webpages, now its not connected at all, it just says local only. I tried to "diagnose and repair" and it gave me this error "cannot connect to primary DNS server (192.168.1.1)" which it could not repair automatically

Anyone got any idea how i can fix this?

I'm going to assume the 192.168.1.1 is the IP Address of your router and that is set to distribute DHCP.

Apart from the DNS Server are you successfully getting an IP Address?

Have you tried power cycling the router? It's amazing how many issues a power cycle can fix.

Also what is the router, it maybe a known issue that's possibly fixed by updated firmware.

Have you tried manually assigning the DNS Servers?

You could try an external DNS server such as -:
154.32.105.18

Good luck

yep 192.168.1.1 is my router address, vista reports that i do have an ip address 192.168.1.34 and typing ipconfig into command prompt confirms this.

By power cycle i assume you mean turning it off and on again, which i have tried a few times.

I actually am apparently connected to the internet at the moment but other than my google homepage everything just times out, if i search for something in google or click one of my bookmark links it just hangs on a white page for ages and the times out.

Ill try manually setting the DNS and using the external one you provided.

Thanks for the quick response

using that dns address its slightly better, i can sort of surf the internet but its very very slow and it still times out sometimes when loading pages and pinging websites with command prompt

No problem.

You could also test DNS resolution of your router by entering a command prompt (Start > Run > cmd) and running nslookup

Then type the following:

server 192.168.1.1
set type=all

Then type the DNS name you're trying to resolve.

If it works you'll get a bunch of replies, if not it'll tell ya!

Just saw your reply as I posted my other.

Since the address I provided you seems to work better, it maybe worth finding out what your ISP's DNS servers are and using them since they'll be closer to you.

Usually you can find this information from support pages of your ISP's website.

Let us know how you get on

cheers for the replies, i really appreciate it, ill try the stuff in command prompt and try and find the DNS for my ISP (Orange)

searching for "dns" in their help & support all i get is one page with dns addresses for dial up connections.

http://help.orange.co.uk/orangeuk/su...vice/index.jsp

ill see if google can shed any light.

I found this from the Orange Broadband support (I'd post the link but it just takes you to the support front page), you can find it using the search term "DNS Server"

The last article "the Orange settings" is the one you want.

Anyway to quote that page:

"
DNS
Domain name service is dynamic.
If connecting to a router, and need DNS settings for home networking, use the IP address or your router, i.e.

• 192.168.1.1

If Orange domain name server (DNS) addresses are required, you should use:
195.92.195.94 and 195.92.195.95
Or, if you experience problems with the above, use:
193.36.79.101 and 193.36.79.100"

Might be worth logging into your router (if you can) to find out what DNS Servers that is picking up from Orange.

ok, i can get onto my router config so ill try and see if its using those,

as for the command prompt stuff, can you talk me through that.

am i just to type in the cmd window: nslookup, server 192.168.1.1, set type=all one after each other?

"Then type the DNS name you're trying to resolve." - is that the address e.g. 192.168.1.1?

In cmd window type:

nslookup [enter]
server 192.168.1.1 [enter] (this sets the DNS Server you want to use for name resolution)
set type=all [enter]

then the DNS name e.g. Google or just google.co.uk

When you've finished in nslookup just type exit which will take you back to the cmd prompt.

Some other thoughts worth checking/trying:

In cmd prompt type: ipconfig /flushdns
In cmd prompt type: ipconfig /registerdns