Most often, Domain Name System (DNS) configuration problems are exposed when one or more DNS client computers cannot resolve host names.
To troubleshoot DNS problems, you must determine the scope of the problem. To do this, you use the ping command on multiple clients to resolve the names of hosts on the intranet and the Internet, and to test overall network connectivity. Run the following commands on several DNS client computers and with several target computers, and then note the results:
ping DNS_server_ip_address
ping internal_host_ip_address, where internal_host_ip_address is the IP address of a computer that exists in the client's domain
ping internal_host_name, where internal_host_name is the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the computer
ping Internet_host_name, where Internet_host_name is the name of a computer that exists on the Internet.
Note
It is not important whether an Internet computer responds to the ping command. What is important is that DNS can resolve the name that you specify to an IP address.
The results of these tests suggest the nature of the problem. The following table shows possible results, causes, and solutions.
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