D-Link DI-604 Question

Does the DI-604's DHCP server serve DNS as well as IP addresses ?????

Under WinXP and Vista, for the last 3 years, I have had my 4 pc's set to obtain IP address and DNS
address automaticaly under the TCP/IP settings and it's always worked until last week. Suddenly I
had random lack of internet access when I powered on my PC's. The only way to get it back was to
power cycle ther router before turning on my PC's. The internet would work fine after this until I
powered down a PC or rebooted a PC then that PC would loose internet access. Since all this started
I found that if I leave the obtain IP address set to automatic but put the routers address in the
DNS address box everything works and my internet connection always works. The DI-604's manual shows
both set to obtain automatically in the illistrations but says nothing about it in the text. I've
also reset the router to factory defaults several times but it makes no difference. I don't know if
this router is starting to die or what........ Does the 604's DHCP server assign DNS as well as IP
numbers ????

Thanks
Brian

 

Brian, Yes this router is supposed to forward the DNS values found in the
WAN Status page to any devices connected to the LAN provided they are using
DHCP.

With your internet link up, hopefully, check to see what value(s) you see on
the WAN status page for DNS.

Then on a PC try the "ipconfig /all" in a command prompt window and see if
they are showing up in the DNS of the PC.

In my case my PC's have 127.0.0.1 first so my outbound is filtered by my
Host file followed by (in my case) two DNS values provided by my ISP as
shown in my routers WAN status page.

It's possible your ISP's DNS servers are experiencing problems if everything
looks good but still will not work when you use a site name rather than the
actual IP address of the site. A tracert in a command prompt window of the
site name may show where connection to the site is failing if there is a
temporary path problem.

One other thing to try is to power down all PC's, reboot the router and then
try one PC and see if it works. If it does power on the rest one-at-a-time
but verify the first PC can still work along with the PC just powered on
before proceeding to the next machine. Possibly you have or had a PC that
was confused with all the router resets and was not accepting the new IP
address the router was sending to it resulting in more than one PC with the
same address.

 

It has for the last three years........

The DNS addresses on the 4 PC's using IPCONFIG /all are always different than the router is showing.
I don't remember if all the PC's had the same dns between them but I know they were different than
my router was showing from my isp (Comcast)

I called, they said they were good.......... as always (Comcast)

I always shut down all the PC's before rebooting the router, even reset the modem several times as
well...... I think maybe my 604 is toast.............. but other than the DNS problem it's working
fine now for the last few days....... Could the router be fried in just this one area (DNS server)
???

Thanks
Brian

 

Yes, but not in the same way.
When it, and similar devices, allocates an IP address, it/they usually
also tell the recipient that they are the DNS server, or provide the IP
address of a server to access.

The pc(?) can use the advised DNS address to perorm dns lookups. If you
DI604 is disconnected from the internet, then it and the pcs are not
going to be able to dns, except for local stuff from hosts files.

 

Since the router is basically a mini-computer it is possible for it to
functionality in one part only, not common but possible.

I support some networks where the PC's are configured to have the same IP
address configured in them for the Default Gateway and DNS server being the
same. In this case your router with the router itself forwarding all DNS
requests up the link to the ISP. You can hand code the DNS values in the
PC's to do that and it may "fix" things until something else goes wrong.

It is possible that reloading the operating firmware in your router might
clear things up but it might also kill it all together if there is something
physically wrong with the memory or other things inside the router. If it
were a choice of buying a new one or reloading the firmware first, I'd try
reloading the box.

D-Links USA web site only has firmware available for the Rev E version of
the box available for downloading. It appears that their United Kingdom
site at
http://www.dlink.co.uk/cs/Satellite...95806691854&pagename=DLinkEurope-GB/DLWrapper
still has software for the Rev B, D and F versions

You might be able to use one of the older releases listed at these
non-D-Link sites
http://ftp.dlink.ru/pub/Router/DI-604/Firmware/Rev.D/old/?C=M;O=D or
http://www.mydumbblogs.com/technology/d-link-di-604-firmware.html I have
not used firmware from either site and it's always possible attempting a
firmware change will turn the router into a perfectly useable door stop...

 

I would enter the actual DNS IP's in each PC and allow them to
continue to obtain their LAN IP's via DHCP. Simple and easy.