Unable to find DNS entry
John Small
Recently I have started receiving the error message "Unable to find
DNS entry for server xxx". Some possibly useful information:
- The message occurs only on initial attempt to retrieve new headers
(with "G").
- The message now occurs often but not every time.
- The number of affected servers varies from one to several.
- I use a dialup connection so the DNS servers are not perpetually
available.
- I've noticed that during startup the message "Automatically
retirieving new headers" (or something close to that) appears in the
status bar at the bottom of the Control Panel. It may be that I just
never paid attention to it before but I don't remember seeing the
message before this DNS problem started.
- If I use the context menu to go offline and then back online with
each affected server I am able to connect to them.
Why are these DNS errors happening? How can I go back to the "good old
days" when there were no such errors?
Trying answer these questions myself I asked myself: What has changed?
Answer:
- I made some settings changes. I've tried reversing them but a) I'm
sure I have remembered exactly what changes I had made; and b) one
change I cannot seem to reverse fully: I enabled tree branches for
"Subscribed Groups". When I re-disabled it the Subscribed Group list
was now sorted by name. (They were not sorted before.)
- I am using a different phone number for the dialup connection. Is it
possible this is the cause?
Any help will be appreciated.
--
John Small
Trevor Hemsley
<zjsm...@os2world.net> wrote:
> Recently I have started receiving the error message "Unable to find
> DNS entry for server xxx". Some possibly useful information:
Could you look in pronews.log and see if there is a message there with more
information?
We don't do anything special about server name lookups so the most likely cause
is a flakey DNS server. Perhaps you could try setting yours to one that works -
8.8.8.8 is a google maintained one that seems to work for me when I try it.
--
Trevor Hemsley, Brighton, UK
Trevor dot Hemsley at ntlworld dot com
John Small
<Trevor....@mytrousers.ntlworld.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 10 May 2011 09:05:46 UTC in comp.os.os2.mail-news, "John Small"
> <zjsm...@os2world.net> wrote:
>
> > Recently I have started receiving the error message "Unable to find
> > DNS entry for server xxx". Some possibly useful information:
>
> Could you look in pronews.log and see if there is a message there with more
> information?
I don't see anything that seems to provide more useful information.
FWIW:
10 May 04:23:46.23 TID 10 [DEBUG1] [NNTP] Issuing lookup of
news.ecomstation.com
10 May 04:23:46.28 TID 7 [DEBUG1] [PCSMGR] CreateConnection found
free connection at position 3
10 May 04:23:46.28 TID 11 [DEBUG1] [NNTP] Connect thread 11 created
10 May 04:23:46.29 TID 11 [DEBUG1] [NNTP] Issuing lookup of
news.ecomstation.com
10 May 04:23:46.80 TID 7 [DEBUG1] [PCSMGR] CreateConnection found
free connection at position 4
10 May 04:23:46.80 TID 12 [DEBUG1] [NNTP] Connect thread 12 created
10 May 04:23:46.82 TID 12 [DEBUG1] [NNTP] Issuing lookup of
news.gmane.org
10 May 04:23:46.84 TID 7 [DEBUG1] [PCSMGR] CreateConnection found
free connection at position 5
10 May 04:23:46.85 TID 13 [DEBUG1] [NNTP] Connect thread 13 created
10 May 04:23:46.85 TID 13 [DEBUG1] [NNTP] Issuing lookup of
news.gmane.org
10 May 04:23:47.65 TID 7 [DEBUG1] [PCSMGR] CreateConnection found
free connection at position 6
10 May 04:23:47.66 TID 14 [DEBUG1] [NNTP] Connect thread 14 created
10 May 04:23:47.69 TID 14 [DEBUG1] [NNTP] Issuing lookup of
news.mozilla.org
10 May 04:23:47.71 TID 7 [DEBUG1] [PCSMGR] CreateConnection found
free connection at position 7
10 May 04:23:47.71 TID 15 [DEBUG1] [NNTP] Connect thread 15 created
10 May 04:23:47.74 TID 15 [DEBUG1] [NNTP] Issuing lookup of
news.mozilla.org
10 May 04:23:54.25 TID 10 [ERROR] [NNTP] DNS lookup failed for
[news.ecomstation.com], error "Try again"
10 May 04:23:54.31 TID 11 [ERROR] [NNTP] DNS lookup failed for
[news.ecomstation.com], error "Try again"
10 May 04:23:54.47 TID 11 [DEBUG1] [NNTP] Connect thread 11 failed to
connect
10 May 04:23:54.49 TID 11 [DEBUG1] [CONNSTAT] Freeing connection
13B99314 (error connecting)
10 May 04:23:54.84 TID 12 [ERROR] [NNTP] DNS lookup failed for
[news.gmane.org], error "Try again"
10 May 04:23:54.89 TID 12 [DEBUG1] [NNTP] Connect thread 12 failed to
connect
10 May 04:23:54.89 TID 12 [DEBUG1] [CONNSTAT] Freeing connection
13B9977C (error connecting)
10 May 04:23:54.90 TID 13 [ERROR] [NNTP] DNS lookup failed for
[news.gmane.org], error "Try again"
10 May 04:23:54.95 TID 13 [DEBUG1] [NNTP] Connect thread 13 failed to
connect
10 May 04:23:54.95 TID 13 [DEBUG1] [CONNSTAT] Freeing connection
13B99BE4 (error connecting)
10
> We don't do anything special about server name lookups so the most likely cause
> is a flakey DNS server. Perhaps you could try setting yours to one that works -
> 8.8.8.8 is a google maintained one that seems to work for me when I try it.
According to the TCP/IP configuration utility, 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 are
already set up as DNS servers. But when my dialup connects, I see
messages regarding "Primary DNS Address" and Secondary DNS Address"
begins set to other addresses. I will try disabling that and report
back with results.
Thanks for such a quick response!
--
John Small
Trevor Hemsley
<zjsm...@os2world.net> wrote:
> 10 May 04:23:54.25 TID 10 [ERROR] [NNTP] DNS lookup failed for
> [news.ecomstation.com], error "Try again"
No idea what that means at the moment but it's the extra info I was looking for.
Dave Yeo
> According to the TCP/IP configuration utility, 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 are
> already set up as DNS servers. But when my dialup connects, I see
> messages regarding "Primary DNS Address" and Secondary DNS Address"
> begins set to other addresses. I will try disabling that and report
> back with results.
Try nslookup news.ecomstation.com right after dialing in and also after
you succeed in getting the headers.
Dave
John Small
wrote:
Just a followup.
Changing my DNS servers from the dynamically assigned ones to fixed
ones seems to have fixed my problem: A whole week without DNS errors.
It's a bit strange that Pronews seemed to be the only affected
application!?
Thanks to all who helped!
--
John Small