Windows XP client unable to query DNS, but nslookup works fine

domain-name-system windows-xp internal-dns

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Solution 1

The solution in this case was a simple reinstall of Windows XP SP3 and everything was then able to resolve DNS correctly.

Solution 2

You might want to check to see if the "NetBIOS TCP/IP Helper service" has been disabled for some reason. When that gets turned off, name resolution behaves erratically on XP.

6,932

Ryan Ferretti

Denny Cherry is the owner and principal consultant for Denny Cherry & Associates Consulting and has over a decade of experience working with platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server, Hyper-V, vSphere and Enterprise Storage solutions. Denny’s areas of technical expertise include system architecture, performance tuning, security, replication and troubleshooting. Denny currently holds several of the Microsoft Certifications related to SQL Server for versions 2000 through 2008 including the Microsoft Certified Master as well as being a Microsoft MVP for several years. Denny has written several books and dozens of technical articles on SQL Server management and how SQL Server integrates with various other technologies. You can find more information about Denny and Denny Cherry & Associates Consulting at dcac.co and more information about Denny's book Securing SQL Server on it's site securingsqlserver.com.

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

Ryan Ferretti over 1 year
All, I've got a Windows XP client which is unable to query DNS for local or internet looks. Even using ping fails to work. However if I run nslookup from the command line it works fine. But nothing else does.

I've also noticed that when I run msinfo32 I get WMI errors. If I try an reinstall WMI using the below, it prompts me for the Windows XP SP3 disk. I've downloaded SP 3 and expanded it, but when I point it to that folder there are still files that it can't find.
```
rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection WBEM 132 %windir%\inf\wbemoc.inf
```
I'm in the process of reinstalling SP3 on the machine now to see if that fixes it. The only errors that I see in the Application and System log are about how it can't locate the domain controllers.

TCP connectivity to the machine is working OK as I can remote desktop to the machine without issue (I'm assuming my credentials are cached). Windows Firewall is disabled as is the firewall within Trend Micro. I've tried disabling Trend Micro to see if that helps which it didn't.

If reinstalling SP3 doesn't help any all I can think of is to have the user format the machine and reinstall.

I'm open to all ideas here, crazy or not.
- johnh almost 14 years
  
  it seems that nslookup doesn't use system level calls for name resolution. here is an article that explains some of it cbfive.com/blog/post/PING-vs-NSLookup.aspx -- my assumption about your problem is that you have some mismatched, missing, or corrupt files on this system.
- Ryan Ferretti almost 14 years
  
  @johnh that's my assumption as well, hence the SP3 reinstall.
- tony roth almost 14 years
  
  have you done the following support.microsoft.com/kb/299357
- Ryan Ferretti almost 14 years
  
  Sorry, I forgot to update here as well. SP3 reinstall did do the trick. Appears to have fixed all the WMI errors that I was having on the machine.
MrGigu almost 14 years

@Kortina, this should really be a question on its own, but, having multiple DNS servers listed is really a bad idea if they're completely independant. The system is designed for redundancy. if you need this, you should point your Windows DNS to use your router as a forwarder, or even better, just use Root Hints and ignore your router/ISP DNS alltogether.
Admin almost 14 years

My workstations were exhibiting the same symptoms as listed in the question. NSLookup worked fine, but trying to ping machines on my local subnet failed. I now know that the Primary and Secondary DNS servers set should be responsible for the same zones. It might fix this problem, and is worth a look.
Ryan Ferretti almost 14 years

This wasn't the problem here. All the internal DNS servers were working properly and only this one machine was having the problem.