server not found on first request

April 22, 2007 3:30 PM

"server not found" problems in Firefox 2 and IE 7 ... I have recently developed a consistent problem with server not found errors in FF and IE, request will load on a second refresh of the request

this topic has been explored in depth elsewhere i am hoping the friendly folks as ask me might be able to help solve this one? i suspect the browser issues are symptom of system issues. side note: using netmon i have consistent network connections so thats not the issue...

posted by specialk420 to computers & internet (11 answers total)

additional side note: if i use dnslookup to check various domains - using ipv4 only - i get consistent correct results. if i use ipv6 only i have consistent errors?
posted by specialk420 at 3:37 PM on April 22, 2007

I'm not familiar with that particular person's dnslookup tool, so I'm not sure how it interacts with the system API's for lookups.

ipv6 is not in general use on the internet, and unless you have specific reasons for using it you're not likely to get results.

My guess would be a DNS issue, or proxy issue. Take a look at your hosts file (c:\windows\sytem32\drivers\etc\hosts) to make sure there is nothing weird in there.

Look at "ipconfig /all " , and see what your DNS servers are set to. Then use the command line nslookup tool (or whatever tool you're using) to query each dns server to see if there is weirdness.

Look at "ipconfig /displaydns " to see if DNS caching is causing any weirdness.

Make sure you don't have proxy servers set on your machine, unless you actually are using one. Disabling "auto-configure proxy" may speed up your browsing too.

Also, does the error in Firefox really only say "Server not Found" ? If not, what does it say in it's entirety. (IE's errors can be less than helpful).
posted by stovenator at 4:21 PM on April 22, 2007

Keep in mind that both IE and Firefox have internal resolvers. They don't use the OS resolver at all.
posted by rhizome at 4:33 PM on April 22, 2007

Despite the "it happens way to fast" comment, I'd suspect DNS first. Try pointing your primary DNS at your router. I've found that routers seem to accept new DHCP information (including up to date DNS addresses) much more easily than windows does.
posted by Chuckles at 4:40 PM on April 22, 2007

Dont you mean that they have their own DNS resolver caches? They all both use dnsapi.dll for dns lookups, don't they?
posted by stovenator at 4:43 PM on April 22, 2007

hmm.. yeah i literally get only the basic "server not found" error from firefox and ie - really strange problem. dns entries all look legit ... any other thoughts?
posted by specialk420 at 5:08 PM on April 22, 2007

My standard advice for any kind of severe network bizarreness: install Wireshark and look at your actual network traffic. Even if you don't know anything about TCP/IP, you will by the time you've stared at a Wireshark packet listing for a few minutes.

There is no substitute for seeing what's actually going on. It beats fumbling around in the dark hands down.
posted by flabdablet at 5:45 PM on April 22, 2007

thanks for the wireshark tip - great little application - i just need a primer on what it all means... i think everyone should spend an hour with wireshark to realize how much goes across the network as open text - dang.
posted by specialk420 at 8:26 AM on April 23, 2007

Things you can check with wireshark:

1. Is your network traffic using IPv4, or IPv6?

2. Do your DNS lookups work properly?

3. Are you actually sending an HTTP request when you think you are? (hint: change the time display format to hours:minutes:seconds).

And yes, it is amazing what goes over the wire in the clear. I regularly use Wireshark to recover POP3 passwords that people have forgotten.
posted by flabdablet at 4:05 PM on April 23, 2007

ok ... i am not positive yet - but i think the issue here is the little sneak fix microsoft gave us - limiting our TCP connections:

http://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=1497
posted by specialk420 at 11:31 AM on April 27, 2007

I guess that's plausible, if the websites you're having trouble with are ones that pull content from lots of different places.
posted by flabdablet at 7:51 PM on April 27, 2007