| Sonic.net's DNS servers windows 7 is making me mad. i tried to set a static ip for my connection recently to simplify my firewall's settings (this is the ip on my internal network, not my public ip).
it worked, but it's also no longer allowing me to automatically obtain the dns server, so unless i decide to use whatever internal ip windows feels like assigning me, i have to specify sonic.net's dns servers.
i only have 2 slots to put dns servers. does sonic have more than 2 dns servers? what are the ip addresses of these server(s)? any help would be welcome! |
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 leiboldPremium,MVM
join:2002-07-09
Sunnyvale, CA
kudos:6
 ·SONIC.NET
| Sonic.net has two DNS servers for the purpose you need them (caching recursive DNS lookups). They are:
ns1.sonic.net 208.201.224.11
ns2.sonic.net 208.201.224.33
There are other DNS servers maintained by Sonic.net but those will only provide authoritative responses for domains hosted by Sonic.net and cannot be used as DNS resolvers.
Windows will allow you to specify more than 2 DNS servers if you choose advanced settings but in this case that is not necessary.
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| thanks so much for your answer leibold. is it possible the ips (208.201.224.11 and 208.201.224.33) might change? i would type in ns1.sonic.net and ns2.sonic.net if i could, but it seems windows will only take ip addresses. should i be safe for a while if i just use those ips you typed? |
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leiboldPremium,MVM
join:2002-07-09
Sunnyvale, CA
kudos:6 Reviews:
·SONIC.NET
| You must use the IP addresses.
if you would enter the names of the DNS server you run into a catch-22 situation. The only way for your computer to contact the DNS server is by IP address (that applies to any unicast network communication regardless of protocol). Your computer would therefore need to translate that ns1/2.sonic.net name into the 208.201.224.11/33 IP address. It would normally do that by asking the DNS server to translate the name into an IP address but it can't connect to the DNS server if it doesn't have its address.
It is unlikely for those IP addresses to be changed by Sonic.net without advance notice to their customers.
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| your analysis is insightful and makes total sense. i hadn't thought of the need to have an ip address for the hosts of the DNS servers too. sonic.net should be paying you for such timely quality replies.  |
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| That's not a Windows thing, it's just the nature of having a static IP address. Usually, in that case, you can use your router's IP (192.168.1.1 or whatever it may be) as the DNS and it'll use whatever DNS are being assigned to your router via DHCP. That might make things a bit simpler and you wouldn't have to worry about Sonic's DNS IPs changing. |
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| reply to whatwindows
interesting solution. out of curiosity, why the router and not the modem?
and i'm no networking expert, but what is dhcp? are there situations where i might have to use an internet connection (through my router) that don't have dhcp? will a dns server always be assigned to my router no matter what type of connection i'm on? |
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| Ok, I'm going to try and explain this but I will almost certainly be corrected by one of the more knowledgeable members here.
The reason why the router and not the modem is because the router is what gets assigned an IP address by Sonic (or any provider for that matter). If you don't use a router, then it is the computer connected to the modem that gets assigned an IP address by Sonic. When the device behind the modem is assigned an IP, it's also assigned DNS servers. This all happens through DHCP.
When you use a router, it makes a local network, so you have local IP addresses, a local subnet, and then all Internet traffic uses the single public IP. When you use your router's local IP as the DNS server, it forwards the request on to the DNS that is assigned to it through DHCP.
Some of that is probably wrong, but the point is it will work and it might be easier to manage in the long run. |
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| reply to whatwindows
well, you're certainly right on both points that matter: 1. it works, and 2. it does make it easier to manage
do you happen to know how i can determine the dns server i'm using at the moment though? i used to just type ipconfig /all in a command prompt, but when i do that now, it's giving me the address of my router. |
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leiboldPremium,MVM
join:2002-07-09
Sunnyvale, CA
kudos:6 Reviews:
·SONIC.NET
| said by whatwindows :do you happen to know how i can determine the dns server i'm using at the moment though? That depends on your router. Most models will have either a GUI or a commandline interface that will let you see the values it obtained via DHCP from the ISP (WAN IP address, default route, DNS server).
This solution that CCNnorthcali  suggested is a good one for mobile users and works in the most common cases (whenever the ISP provides a dynamic IP address to the customer router). It may work in some but certainly not all situations where the customer has a static IP address.
The answers you got from CCNnorthcali are correct but for additional clarification:
A modem just changes the line signals (typically from a format used for local networking such as Ethernet to one for wide area networking such as DSL) without changing the information (IP packets) that are transmitted through it.
A router takes an active role in the networking and processes each received packet to determine what to do with it (in most cases very little, other then passing it on to the correct destination).
DHCP (the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is used for the automatic configuration of network devices. In very simple terms it allows a network device to ask: Who am I ?, Where do I need to go ? What is the address of the address book ? A DHCP server will respond to that question with an IP address for the network device, the default route and the address for one or more DNS servers.
A typical broadband router actually uses DHCP in two distinct ways which can be confusing. On the WAN side (the side of the router facing the ISP) the router acts as DHCP client and asking the ISP for configuration information. On the LAN side (your local network) it acts as a DHCP server and provides local IP addresses (as well as other configuration information) to the network devices on your LAN.
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