XP DNS settings won't stay

[pally01]

Hello all.

At work, an XP pc is connected to a network with a manual i.p. address, subnet etc and also uses manually-configured DNS server settings. The problem is that whenever that pc is restarted, the DNS settings get wiped. The i.p. address and subnet remain what were specified, but the DNS stuff goes away.

Re-entering the DNS stuff gets the pc connected once again, but only until a restart is done.

Any ideas on why this is happening or how I can configure the DNS so the settings required remain even after a restart?

Many thanks.

[Force Flow]

Does the computer have any disk freeze programs installed? (deep freeze, centurion guard, clean slate, SteadyState, etc.) Or, parental control software?

[pally01]

Hey Force.

I'll have to look. Never heard of disk freeze programs before now. I'll look into the pc and see if it has anything like that. What is the intent of disk freeze programs? So users can't make catastrophic changes?

[Force Flow]

Originally Posted by pally01 What is the intent of disk freeze programs? So users can't make catastrophic changes?

Yes, and any minor ones too. It's typically only used in business environments.

[pally01]

Thanks Force. I'll check it out Monday and see what I can find. I am not familiar with the pc in question, or the network it runs on so anything is possible.

[SpywareDr]

What happens when you run the following cmd:

for %x in (release flushdns renew all) do ipconfig /%x

Are the DNS Server addresses still wrong?

[pally01]

I'll give that a shot on Monday, SpywareDr. Thanks.

[pally01]

Ok I've looked at the installed programs for anything that looks similar to the prog's Force identified and found none.

I used Spyware Dr's command and the pc returned the message "the operation failed as no adapter is in the state permissible for this operation". I researched this message a bit, and it looks like I need to set my settings to DHCP and then run Spyware's command again. If the command runs properly afterwards, then I can revert to static addresses etc. It also seems as though the problem may be a winsock corrupted file, and a repair/renewal may be in order.

I haven't had a chance to proceed any further yet, but can anyone add some insight? Does it look like I'm on the proper methodology to proceed etc? Any insight welcomed.

[Force Flow]

SpywareDr's command probably won't help you in this situation. All it does is cycle through all the adapters and flush the DNS cache, then renew the IP address settings (if using DHCP).

Which service pack of XP are you running?

[pally01]

The pc has SP3 installed.

It dawned on me that I could try system restore and see if I can get joy that way. Lo-and-behold it worked! I can now restart the pc and the manually-configured settings stay intact.

Not sure what broke the DNS stuff, so I am reinstalling updates one at a time to see if any of them were the cause.

I'd still like to know how to fix this problem had system restore not been successful though.

[rjfvillarosa]

Let us know if you find anything.

[pally01]

Update: I expected at a few XP updates needing to be installed after the system restore. There was only one, and installing it did not crash the DNS. That's a good thing except that I still dont know what caused the problem in the first place.

I'd still like to know what happened originally, but I suspect I'll accept the fact the pc is working properly again and leave well enough alone.

Many thanks to Force,Spy as well as RJ. Much appreciated fellas.