Troubleshooting Domain Name System (DNS) Issues

Domain Name System (DNS) is basically a directory for internet that translates them to IP address. Every single website has its own IP address on the web. DNS is necessary as it would be easy for people to remember and access different sites.

Any downtime for every company is a serious case and could lead to revenue loss and damaged reputation for the company. That’s why downtime or any issue should be fixed and resolved as soon as possible. However, Domain Name System issues are a bit tricky. How would you know if you are having DNS issue? Of course, you have to do it step by step and as quick as it could be. Quick check is to verify your network connection, check if the Domain Name System (DNS) has network connectivity through PING Command. You can save time by doing this and verify immediately if it is a DNS issue. Note that PING would only work if ICMP packets are allowed. Find out if all users are affected, check if all are having same issue within your network and if possible or have backup, check with another ISP.

In this few troubleshooting, at least you would be able to isolate the issue and would not need to dive deeper. Yet if quick troubleshooting does not work then you need to dive deeper, troubleshooting your network or server’s connectivity.

How The DNS server is not responding to clients.

Cause: The DNS server has been configured to limit service to a specific list of its configured IP addresses. The IP address originally used in testing its responsiveness is not included in this list.

Solution: If the server was previously configured to restrict the IP addresses for which it responds to queries, it is possible that the IP address that are being used by clients to contact it is not in the list of restricted IP addresses that are permitted to provide service to clients.

Try testing the server for a response again, but specify a different IP address that is known to be in the restricted interfaces list for the server. If the DNS server responds for that address, add the missing server IP address to the list.

Nancy Wilson is a professional writer and lover of all things tech, internet and telcom. Nancy Wilson is basically from Porter Ranch, California. She wrotes and published few articles on famous sites like Moz, Sej, ShoutME, etc.