Can't resolve domain names in Ubuntu with a static IP

Question

Running Ubuntu 9.04 fully patched on a custom machine. My typical setup is to assign static IP's to all my machines in the network (simplifies things with the other hardware). This morning, my machine was doing fine and I was able to get out and about just fine, Didn't make any configuration changes then. Tonight, after I got home from work, I can't resolve domain names on my box, but I can get directly to IP addresses. When I switch from using a static IP to DHCP, domain names resolve again and I can get out everywhere. Does anyone know what would have changed to stop resolving domains, and how I can fix it so I can use static again? Thanks.

Solution

System > Preferences > Network Connections > Edit > IPx4 Settings > DNS Servers. Whatever is placed there, it does not work, maybe because your ISP started blocking external DNS traffic. Try to put there addresses of the OpenDNS nameservers, that is "208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220" without the quotes.

Does it help?

Another option is that the avahi daemon stopped working

Comments

[Tom A]

Ok, I'll have to try these as soon as I get home.

[Tom A]

OpenDNS appears to be a proxy service. How would this solve a dns resolution issue? If it were my wife's windows box, I could do a tcp/ip reset with the netsh command, but I don't know of a linux version.

[Tom A]

have two computers, printer, ps2, and cell phones all connecting to the internal network. everything with web browsers except my computer works just fine, not sure why ubuntu would need the hosts file set up since it's been running straight for a week without reboot and started sometime today during the day.

[Star Chow]

no,they provide DNS servers,you can use them instead of your router's

[Tom A]

The nameservers did it. Actually sped up my response time too. Thanks everyone.

[bortzmeyer]

Bad idea, they are lying DNS resolvers, which modify the legitimate responses (for instance to direct you to advertisments).

[Star Chow]

they do not do that,by the way advertisements haven't changed when i used their DNS's