Computer refuses to resolve DNS

MechMantis

On my main computer I've been having issues that appear to be DNS related from all angles. Connecting to sites directly via IP works fine, connections established before these intermittent problems show up are fine, and when in the middle of these intermittent problems, Windows is all "Hey your DNS server ain't responding, fix it", and I'm unable to do anything involving the internet. However, these problems are 1, as mentioned, intermittent, and 2: isolated to the one computer.

I've tried automatically acquiring one, Google's DNS, as well as OpenDNS', all of them have the same issue, which in addition to point 2 leads me to believe that this is a computer-side thing.

However I've already tried updating/reinstalling the network drivers for my onboard LAN, tried my wireless card, updated/reinstalled THOSE drivers, reset the router (which fixes the problem for about 30 seconds on the affected computer, but soon resurfaces) and the like. I'm out of ideas. It isn't an IP conflict or anything else, since I've gone both the DHCP route and the manually assigned route.

What the hell else could be going wrong here?

Myiagros

Virus/Malware checks been done? I can't think of anything else besides a hardware issue with your ethernet card since it works fine on other systems.

tarnok

You might also check your router for some kind of infection. I was having similar problems once and a friend diagnosed it as a virus on my router that was sending all our traffic through Russia or something.

MechMantis

Yes on both, though double checking can't hurt.

Hevach

Check internet options>connections>LAN settings and make sure you're not configured to use a proxy. Even if there's a check there but no proxy address in the box, it can screw shit up.

Failing that, check the hosts file (in windows\system32\drivers\etc), if it's not empty try stripping it back to just the commented lines and the 127.0.0.1 line if it's there (it's usually not necessary but can't hurt).

Both of these are common malware symptoms that can get left behind after scans remove the original cause.

MechMantis

Well, I seem to have found a TENTATIVE solution. Apparently some Time Warner Cable routers have overactive IP flood detection, which my computer was setting off. Disabling that seems to have fixed the problem (while opening me up to DDoS attacks) but we'll see.

SeñorAmor

Additionally, you may want to see if you can bridge your modem from TWC and put your own router in place.