Everything resolves as 1.0.0.0 [solved]

[onefriedrice]

Hello:

I am having a problem with a network hub (netgear fs105) which replaced an older netgear en104tp. The devices are similar. I just have a few computers connected via the hub to a dsl modem/router. Windows works normally with the new hub. Mac OS X works normally, but Gentoo (and also NetBSD) have a certain problem.

The symptom is that some apps can't resolve names properly (i.e. everything is resolved as 1.0.0.0) and other apps do just fine. Firefox and Thunderbird work, but portage/wget and pidgin (aim) do not. Once the name is resolved via an app that works, the others will be able to resolve correctly. For example, ping works. If I ping a certain domain, then I can use wget to pull files from it.

I'm not a network guru, so I'm a little perplexed. The hub seems to be working fine, so I don't know if this is a software issue or what. Anyone recognize this behavior?

Thanks a lot,
onefriedrice

[Hu]

Your DNS server is probably behaving very strangely. What is the output of cat /etc/resolv.conf on an affected machine?

[onefriedrice]

My resolv.conf is:

domain domain.actdsltmp
nameserver 192.168.0.1
nameserver 198.60.22.2

which is set automatically via dhcp by the dsl modem. I just checked and it is the same on the bsd machine and on the OS X machine. It seems to me that it has to be a problem with the hub because everything works as expected with the older one, but there's this problem with the new one. The reason I'm perplexed is because it doesn't affect some operating systems. If the hub does have some sort of fault, why is this problem manifest only in Gentoo and NetBSD? Or if the problem is a strange DNS server or something else, why does it appear normal using the older hub?

I don't know enough of networking to answer these questions. Do you see anything sketchy about the resolv.conf file?

Thanks a lot,
onefriedrice

[Hu]

The domain specifier is a bit odd, but is not related to your current problem. If I had to guess, I would say that the DNS server in your DSL modem has lost its mind, and that the Windows machine is ignoring the DNS server in the DSL modem. Run dig failing-domain-here @192.168.0.1 and dig failing-domain-here @198.60.22.2 and compare the answers. This shows you the A records returned by each of the named servers.

[onefriedrice]

; <<>> DiG 9.4.1-P1 <<>> nintendo.com@192.168.0.1
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 50969
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;nintendo.com\@192.168.0.1. IN A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
. 10614 IN SOA a.root-servers.net. nstld.verisign-grs.com. 2007091901 1800 900 604800 86400

;; Query time: 47 msec
;; SERVER: 198.60.22.2#53(198.60.22.2)
;; WHEN: Wed Sep 19 22:51:04 2007
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 117


; <<>> DiG 9.4.1-P1 <<>> nintendo.com@198.60.22.2
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 13925
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;nintendo.com\@198.60.22.2. IN A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
. 10561 IN SOA A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. NSTLD.VERISIGN-GRS.COM. 2007091901 1800 900 604801 86400

;; Query time: 48 msec
;; SERVER: 198.60.22.2#53(198.60.22.2)
;; WHEN: Wed Sep 19 22:51:19 2007
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 117


How does that look?

[onefriedrice]

Well, I did a little more searching and it seems you're right. It is a buggy router. The work-around I've applied is to set the DNS servers to static on the router. The most common theory seems to be related with IPv6 bugs, and it has affected several routers. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/81057 for more info. I still don't know why OS X with the same resolv.conf was able to work just fine or why the problem only occurred while using the 100Mbit router or why ping is always able to get good names. Seems like a strange situation, but while it kind of works now, I guess I'll just be content.

Thanks,
onefriedrice