DNS Question

[Po]

So I know there a lot of computer techies here, so prz help me out.
In my apartment my roommate and I have a wireless network. Now my roommate is the one who manages the network, but I want to know if I can fix this myself somehow.. that was the prologue.

So I was not able to connect to the internet last night on my Computer, 360 or Wii, which is very odd to me. Now sometimes I know wireless networks are just down or w/e, but I don't think that's what it is. When I did the connection test on my 360 it acknowledged the connection of the wireless network and found the IP Address, but then it could not confirm the "DNS" and for that reason was not able to connect. Now I think this is the same reason I can't connect on my computer or Wii as well, and I am looking for some guidance as far as what to do to fix this, or what. Thanks guys.

[SephYuyX]

Need some background info.

Everything was working fine yes? Then just stopped?
Ask your roomie if he changed any wireless settings?

If he says no, the just power down the wireless, and anything connected before it (IE: modem).

How extensive is this 'network'? If its just your computers/systems, id say power everything down. Take the plugs out of the routers, modems, etc, wait 10 minutes then reboot everything starting from the wall, but dont power up the next thing untill the previous is stable.

If he did change something ask him to change it back and see if it works, then you can work out something so that both of you are happy with the settings.

The reason im being vague is that wireless DNS' (I assume its just a retail router?) are not picky with their settings and really only come out erroring when the function is turned off. Id suggest rebooting everything first if your roomie didnt change any settings. If that doesnt work we can go a step further.

[Isiolia]

Sounds like your internal network was working, but your WAN connection was not for some reason.

Your DNS server, basically, directs your computer to the proper IP address based on domain registration, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_system

What you can try to see if the DNS server is not working properly would be to directly enter the IP address of a site rather than the URL. Or just try to ping something outside your network by IP address.

[Saphirea]

Unplug the router and the modem and let them chill out for 10 minutes or so and then plug them back in and see what happens if your roomate says he didnt change anything.

Also, you'll experience this if your router does automatic changes of its security key if you're on WPA2. Check and see if the SSID and WPA key changed. If not then resetting sometimes is just the fix you need.

Wireless DNS like said before isn't that big of a deal being that your network isn't that expansive. Also if you're using say a wireless bridge or something check and make sure thats up and running as well.

[Swampthing]

what brand of wireless router are you using

[Po]

I am not sure the brand of the router, but my wireless card is a Linksys.
The system is just his computer and mine, and it is encrypted by a WPA-TSIK (I think, does that sound right?) encryption. I wouldn't think it has anything to do with the encryption or the connection itself since the 360 connection test said it was able to connect and find the IP, but couldn't do the DNS.
It wouldn't be able to do all that if my WPA password I had in was wrong right?
So you think all it might be would just be to power everything down and back up again? Seems kinda simple, but if that is the case I will tell him.
Any other info I can give you guys for more info?

[Swampthing]

the best way to do it really is to get the mac address of your systems and setup the router to "only allow these mac addresses to connect to me."

i dont know if there is any way to find out the 360's mac address though? if you can, that is the best way to do it.

do try shutting everything off though, it doesn't take that long and will 9 times out of 10 fix the problem.

[SephYuyX]

The first and easiest method that any tech will tell you to do will be to reboot / power cycle your hardware. It seems so easy, but yet it usually clears up a lot of problems.

I often find myself with errors on some of my servers, and then I dive in and try to fix my problem with no avail; then ofcourse, I forgot the easiest trouble shooter: reboot. Youd be surprized how many problems are solved by doing it.

[Po]

Yea I've heard things about the MAC address before, someone had told me to do that with the PS3 (I sold that PoS thank god).
Anyway, anyone know how I can go about getting the MAC address for my comp, 360 and Wii? I also heard this would make the connection going to it a lot stronger as well.

[Swampthing]

i cant help you with finding the mac address of your consoles, but this is how to get it for your PC:

click start, then run

type "cmd" and press enter

in the window that appears type "ipconfig /all"

your PC's mac address is labeled in this information as "Physical Address" and it is a series of 6 sets, of two characters each, separated by hyphens, which looks like:

xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx

this is assuming you use windows XP, although i am sure 2000 would be the same.

[Justice]

you can use the arp command to get the mac address of a ip address.

the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is the method for finding a host's hardware address when only its network layer address is known. Due to the overwhelming prevalence of IPv4 and Ethernet, ARP is primarily used to translate IP addresses to Ethernet MAC addresses.

Err, actually if there is a router inbetween, the arp command might actually get you the Mac Address of the router but its worth a shot.

command is something like arp -# <ip address of console>

[Devek]

Yea I've heard things about the MAC address before, someone had told me to do that with the PS3 (I sold that PoS thank god).
Anyway, anyone know how I can go about getting the MAC address for my comp, 360 and Wii? I also heard this would make the connection going to it a lot stronger as well.

It won't make your connection stronger and won't stop anyone from connecting that already broke WEP/WPA. If you are worried about signal you shouldn't be using wireless in the first place.

Total waste of time.

Do what one of the first posters suggested which was correct and ping an IP address out of your network..

ping 66.94.234.13
ping yahoo.com

If you get a reply when pinging by IP but not when you ping by name than you have a DNS problem. If both either fail or work than your problem is somewhere else.

[Po]

I already confirmed that the problem is DNS.. that is what the connection test told me.

[Devek]

No you didn't.