Verizon DSL → Re: [connectivity] Westell 2200 Problem? (UDP)

Yes, there are problems with 2200 DNS. There are problems with DNS for many home routers.

Most routers do DNS forwarding. They set themselves as the DNS server (in their DHCP information). So when DNS queries are made, they go to the router, which forwards to the real DNS server.

My wife uses a laptop provided by her employer and configured by her employer. She carries it between work and home, so that she can work from home. Looking at the logs on my Westell 327w, I see that when she boots up the computer, there are about 400 or or more DNS errors logged by the 327w. These are mostly DNS queries which time out when done from home, because they are queries for names on the company internal network.

This large number of queries (and I only see the logs of the unsuccessful ones), seems to be overloading the 327w. While that laptop is starting up, the Westell stops responding to network requests for a few minutes. Then sometimes it recovers, and sometimes it reboots itself. My temporary workaround is to have my wife disconnect the ethernet cable and disable WiFi when booting the laptop. And then connect it back when the system is up and running well enough that she is read to startup her VPN client to her employer network.

I have seen the same problem with:

A speedstream 5861 modem/router: the modem would reboot.
A Westell 2200: The modem would seem to lockup, then recover. But sometimes DNS would not recover so I had to manually reboot.
A Belkin 4-port ethernet router: I had manually configured DNS servers into this router, so that the DNS would not use the Westell 2200 DNS function. However, now the Belkin router locks up, and I have to power cycle it to get it back to running.
A Westell 327w which I am now using, and base my description above on that.

Of those four, at least the 5861 and the 327w would eventually reboot by themselves. The others required manual intervention.

When using the 5861, I solved the problem by manually configuring DNS servers in that modem/router. It turns out that when you manually configure DNS servers in a 5861, its DHCP function tells the client computers the real DNS server info, so the 5861 is no longer being used as a DNS forwarder (though it will forward to the configured servers if you directly request to the router).

I know of one other router that would probably work the same. It's an SMC 7004VBR. It's normal behavior is to tell the client the real DNS servers, instead of acting as a forwarder. I'll probably test that out sometime in the next few weeks.

There are probably other home routers that can give the real DNS info to clients, but I don't happen to know what they are. My guess is that all SMC routers probably behave that way, but I only have experience with the one.

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A comment on the laptop. This problem has happened on two different laptops (from the same company). And the current laptop has seen a reformat and complete reinstall, with the same problem both before and after. Yes, I have a big WTF about what the are doing with that laptop setup. But it's their laptop, and I need it to work on my home network.

@nwrickert -

By reboot, do you mean physically reboot, or just "stall" until the situation clears itself?

Is there any way to avoid this in the 2200 (i.e., 2200 VC Configuration, Windows XP -> Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) -> Properties -> General)?


Thanks.

Edit - Clarification.

My 2200 stalls. My 327w sometimes stall, and sometimes physically reboots. The evidence of reboot is the lights, and the uptime shown aftwards.

I could not find any way around this with the 2200 or 327w.

My current setup is to have the modem connected to an SMC router. I manually configure the DNS addresses in the SMC router. And that router DHCP server tell client computers what are the actual DNS servers, instead of giving them the router IP as DNS server. This has completely eliminated the problem (at the cost of needing an additional network component). My wife's comment was "Wow, this is now booting up much faster, and starting VPN is much faster".

I have another thread inquiring about which routers give out actual DNS server info, instead of acting as a DNS forwarder: »Routers and DNS

I think I've seen this occasionally. I've always attributed it to a power hit, but this seems to make more sense.

I guess my question is, since my desktop PC's are "fixed", if I set the Windows XP -> Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) -> Properties -> General -> Use the following DNS server addresses: to [desired DNS address], does this "bypass" the 2200's internal DNS server?

Can I do this with DHCP enabled in the 2200?


Thanks.

Yes, configuring DNS servers directly in Windows should solve the problem for desktops. And you can still keep DHCP enabled in the 2200, where it is still assigning IP addresses.

With laptops, it is more of a problem, since you might sometime be taking the laptops to places where the manually configured DNS servers won't work.

I switched the DNS in Windows, and the problem went away.

For reference, what purpose does the 2200's DNS actually serve (besides acting as a "relay")? Can I turn it off altogether?


Thanks.

It is basically just acting as a relay.

It also creates pseudo-dns entries for the machines on your LAN so that they can see each other with DNS. But this has never been useful as far as I can tell. For Windows networking, the windows nameservice is used anyway.

Shutting the DNS off won't hurt since you aren't using it. But then shutting it off won't help, since you aren't using it anyway.

I'm glad things are now working for you. That's pretty good evidence that the cause of the problem has been correctly identified.

If I turn the 2200's DNS off, any machine I connect to my LAN will need to be configured in Windows... correct?


Thanks.

That's correct.

OK.


Thanks.