DNS Server Error

If you have been looking for some hints or ways to fix a DNS server error, this article offers you some help in that matter. Read on and get to know what this error means and how it can be rectified effectively.

DNS stands for "Domain Name System", which happens to be a technique developed to assign IP (Internet Protocol) addresses to domain names. It is more like the phone book of the Internet, which assigns numbers to domain names of sites. Every computer connected to the Internet has its own unique IP address which is a series of numbers separated by dots. Every website is hosted on a web server and it has a unique IP address assigned to it. You can open a website by directly typing in the IP address after "http://".

However, it is difficult to remember IP addresses for all websites and easier to remember and recall domain names or host names of websites. That is why the hierarchical domain name system was developed. This system converts the domain names of websites that you type in the browser address bar into IP addresses. At that point the web server, hosting that website, is located and the page is served on your computer, once a connection has been established to it through your ISP (Internet Service Provider) using the "Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP)". A local DNS server, implements this "IP address" lookup system for every ISP. In short DNS is a sort of an interface which translates/interprets domain names into IP addresses and vice versa.

A DNS server error occurs when the server can't resolve IP address corresponding to the domain name you typed in the web browser. There could be numerous reasons why you might get such an error. The error may be local or remote. By local, I mean that the problem may have occur due to Internet connectivity problems on your side. The problem may be remote in the sense that the web server hosting that website may have some problems like lack of authentication, which might be giving you the error. In this case, there is no other option but to wait, till the problem is solved at the web server, hosting the site.

How to check if the error is local or remote? Try opening other websites and if they all open, with exception of one, which is giving you the error, then the problem may be remote. If none of the web pages are getting displayed, then you may have an internet connectivity issue. XBOX 360 or PS3 DNS error may occur due to faulty Internet connection settings in the connected wireless router. In such cases, it is most likely that your Internet connection is not working properly.

How to Fix a DNS Server Error?

There are many problems that may cause this type of an error. Here are some of the basic things that you could do to rectify it.

           Change Firewall Settings

The incoming and outgoing Internet data traffic to and fro your personal computer is controlled by a firewall. Certain software programs may be banned from accessing the Internet through firewall settings. Your browser itself may have gotten blocked by the firewall. To resolve the issue, go to the "Control Panel" and open the windows firewall settings. Under "Exceptions" tab, if your browser isn't included, click on "Add Program" and click on your browser in the list of programs that open. Click on "OK". Open the "Add Port" option and enter the name "HTTP" for name and put "80" for port number. With that, your browser will be released from the firewall ban and your DNS server error may be resolved. So whenever a DNS error is displayed, check out the firewall settings.

            Clear DNS Cache

Each time a site is opened in a browser, a request is sent to the DNS server for IP address translation. The recovery of the IP address information is stored on your computer in the "DNS cache". Next time, when you enter the request for the same website again, the DNS information is being retrieved from the cache itself, to save time and provide a faster browsing experience. The contents of the DNS cache can be looked up by the command - "ipconfig/displaydns" entered in the command prompt.

However, if there was an earlier unsuccessful attempt at recovering IP address, that negative attempt information gets stored in the cache too. So, subsequent attempts at opening the site may fail, as the information may be recovered from the cache which has no information. That is why, to resolve the issue, you need to clear your DNS cache by typing in the command - "ipconfig /flushdns" in the command prompt. This may get rid of the error message and the site may get loaded. In most cases, this procedure should rectify the problem.

            Clear Cookies & Browsing History

Also, clear the cookies and browsing history on your browser that may be causing a problem in displaying the page. This may help in resolving the error.

            Check DNS Settings

Check the DNS settings for your internet connection. Get information from your ISP about the right DNS settings and see to it that those are entered correctly or match with your DNS settings. Entering the right DNS settings might also rectify your problem.

A local error is certain to get fixed with any of the above suggested fixes. If none of this works, contact your ISP for a resolution of the problem, as the problem might be from their side, which is causing the error.

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DNS Server Address

In my last post, i talked about Domain Name Server (DNS) and today, we are going to be looking at DNS Server Address. 

If you have been wondering or trying to understand the working of world wide web and Internet technology, you are bound to come across the question of what a DNS server address is and the role its play in the functioning of the Internet.

What is a DNS Server?

To understand what this address actually means, you need to comprehend what a DNS server is. Let me start with that. A Domain Name System (DNS) is an elaborate technique developed to translate alpha-numeric domain names of websites into IP addresses and IP addresses back to domain names on any computer network. When you type the name of any website in a web browser, your client computer needs to translate that name into the IP address of the server which hosts that site. These servers do the job of translating these domain names of websites to their IP address counterparts and vice versa. They are the Internet technology equivalent of phone books, that have a large database of website names along with their associated IP addresses. So this server is like an online translator of domain names for client computers connected on the Internet.

Does every DNS server associated with an Internet service provider have the database of all websites on the Internet? No, it is not so. There are only 13 root servers all over the world that hold the complete databases. The rest of the regional servers only have a small part of the database and ask for more information from root servers as required. All the services on the Internet depend on DNS servers for routing of data. That is why domain name registration is controlled by an international organization to eliminate confusion regarding routing of information on the Internet.

Google search engine provides its own DNS server for public use. The Google DNS server addresses (IP addresses) are 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. Look up the OpenDNS server address which offers free service.

What is a DNS Server Address?

This address is an essential part of specifications that you save into your ISP provided Internet connection settings. With the local DNS address specified, your computer can easily lookup IP addresses of any website that you browse by sending a request and retrieving relevant information. When you get a DNS error, it most likely means that the website address you typed is incorrect or something is wrong with your Internet connection. Most of the time, DNS server errors mean that you need to recheck the domain name of the website you are looking for. That is why, it is essential that you enter the correct domain name address when you set up your Internet connection.

How is it found?

In case your computer hard drive gets formatted and you need to enter the Internet connection settings again, to set up your connection, it is essential that you know the DNS address specific to your ISP. You can have all the information you need from your computer itself. If yours is a Windows based PC, here is how you can find the address. 

Open the command prompt application in Windows through 'Start --> and Type cmd in the search box'. Make sure that your Internet connection is on. Type in the following command in the command prompt:

C:\>ipconfig/all

and press enter. Immediately, you will be supplied with the complete details relevant to your net connection. This will include the DNS server address as well, which you can easily note down. It will also include IP address, Subnet Mask address and default gateway address. This is the simplest way of knowing your DNS server address. So now that you know how to determine the address, you can go ahead and note down your Internet connection details for future reference.

How to Find the Address on a Mac/Linux/BSD?

In case you are a Mac OS X, Linux or BSD user, the method to find the IP address is not the same. ipconfig won't work there. Here is what you need to type in shell prompt to get the address. 

$ cat /etc/resolv.conf

Immediately, as you type in this command and hit enter, you will find two IP addresses listed beside 'nameserver'. Those are the addresses used by your ISP.

Because of the elaborately designed and highly efficient/effective various level structure of the DNS servers, we can browse from one site to the other without any perceivable delay. It is interesting to understand how much of effort needs to be placed in to translate machine language to human readable form and vice versa. The DNS setup is a good example of such a machine to human language translation.

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Domain Name Server (DNS)

Regular users of the Internet must have doubtlessly run into a 'DNS Error' while surfing the net. In this article, you will get to know more about DNS (Domain Name Servers).

Domain names are an extremely technical sounding name for website addresses. For example, www.google.com is the domain name for Google. There are many parts of this address that makes up the entire domain name.

The '.com' part of the website address is called a First Level or Top Level domain. Other such first level or top level domains are

• .edu (used by educational institutions)
• .gov (used by government organizations)
• .mil (reserved for the United States Military)
• .com, .net and .org (available for most people; used by commercial organizations, organizations related to the Internet, and non-profit organizations respectively)
• .biz (reserved for businesses)
• .info (for websites providing information)

There are also other top level domains available by country codes such as '.uk' (for the UK), '.us' (for USA), '.au' (for Australia), etc.

The Second Level Domain is directly below the first level domain name. In our example, 'google.com' would form a second level domain. The Third Level Domain is also called the URL (Uniform Resource Locator). This is the whole website address, which on account of our example would be 'http://www.google.com'. There are also Sub-Domains on a website. For instance, in the URL 'http://www.personal.websitename.com', the '.personal' is a sub-domain. One can have numerous sub-domains on a website.

There are other basic terms which one needs to know so as to understand the concepts of Domain Name Servers (DNS). 

IP or Internet Protocol Addresses
These are the numerical form of domain names of websites. It is the actual address that one computer uses to link to the website through the Internet. These numbers are regulated/controlled by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Each computer on the Internet also has its assigned IP address. This could be either static or dynamic. Dynamic addresses change each time a computer logs on to the Internet. Computers such as servers use a static IP Address, which always remains the same. The IP address normally looks something like '12.345.678.91'. Ideally, one can reach the website by typing either the website address or the IP address into the browser.

WHOIS Directory
This is a directory of website domain names, and the individuals or organizations who own these names. It is a public directory, and anyone who wants to know more about the owners of a particular domain name can discover relevant details in the WHOIS Directory. The IP addresses of these domains can likewise be obtained from this directory. Therefore, anyone that wants to register a domain name needs to provide certain details while registering. These details include the name, address, contact telephone numbers in case of technical or other difficulties, etc.

Domain Host
These are places on the Internet which run the DNS for your domain. This includes your A Records (your host records), MX Records (mail exchange records), and CNAME Records (canonical name records or aliases for A records).

Domain Registrars
Domain registrars are companies which offer/sell you the domain name that you want. Most of these companies often offer hosting solutions. Hosting is actually the specified amount of space on a server where you can store the data which may or may not appear on your website. One can purchase hosting with an alternative provider as well, and have the IP address of the domain name point to the IP address of the server space of the hosting company.

ICANN maintains a list of Accredited Domain Registrars. A domain name can usually be registered for different periods of time, anywhere between a period of 1 to 10 years, and has to be renewed after this period is over. This name is owned by the buyer only for that specified period of time. If not renewed in a timely fashion, anyone else may be able to purchase it.

There are no restrictions to the number of domain names which an individual can possess. An individual can additionally buy and sell them. But before you go and register domain names in your name, you need to be aware of Cyber Squatting Laws and Intellectual Property Laws. Cyber Squatting involves registering a domain name with the aim of extorting a large amount of money from the individual who ends up buying it from you. Likewise, Intellectual Property Laws will come into force if you register domain names with names similar to the names of famous people, personalities, and organizations.

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