Server not found

Since this morning, some sites i visit (appears to be random), im getting this message http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/attachments/net...

Refreshing a few times fixes it and the website loads. Ive had issues before like this and normally rebooting the router works, but it hasnt this time. I get it on Firefox, IE and also the browser on my PS3 so its not a browser/PC issue.

Ive heard flushing the DNS may help? Never done it before tho so dont want to break anything

Could it be an issue with the ISPs DNS servers?

Edited by bobble_bob (Sun 01-Sep-13 08:44:09)

Use the tracert command from a DOS prompt window to discover the IP address for, say, the BBC website, when you get the error again, type the IP address in the browser address bar instead of www.bbc.co.uk. If this resolves to the website, then yes, DNS would look like the first culprit.

Will try. Mainly seems to be forums that i get the issue on. If its happening on other devices on the network, would flushing the dns do anything or not?

I'm far from clued up on these things (no surprise there) but believe that flushing the DNS, again via a prompt window, will only do so for the device it's done on. So if happening on all devices at the same time, then it would most likely be due to something they all share. Router, or ISP maybe. You can use an open DNS service, which would help rule out the ISP, but I know not how to set this up.

Someone clever will turn up and inform us shortly no doubt !

haha thanks.

Sometimes the website does load but its formatted all wrong, not sure what that means

I found this for you.

Flushing DNS will do no harm, for sure, did it many times on my old Windows machine. Have moved to the 'other' side these days ........ and am a much happier bunny for it.

Cheers just tried it. Didnt help but the issue isnt as bad as it was first thing this morning

Edited by bobble_bob (Sun 01-Sep-13 09:16:25)

OK, so guessing it's not that then. Is the router itself old, who's the ISP ?

Yea its an old router. Netgear DG834Gv5 and my ISP is ADSL24

Like i say ive had issues in the past (months ago and only lasted 10 mins or so) and from memory it was the same sites that were having issues. Last hour or so its improving too, so maybe it was their dns servers that fell over

Just change the DNS settings in router from ISP's DNS to 1 of these public DNS, or a mixture of the 2:

Open DNS : 208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220
Google DNS: 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4
Norton DNS: 198.153.192.50 & 198.153.194.50