Beginner+

Ping works but names don't resolve: the DNS server is wrong

PC reaches the web server by address, but every name fails: its DNS server setting points at an address where nothing answers.

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The scenario

PC (10.0.1.10) reaches Web-Server (10.0.2.10) through the Router, and DNS-Server (10.0.1.53) sits on PC's own switch with a record for web.corp. Yet every name PC tries fails. The cause is one setting: PC's DNS server is 10.0.1.35, the right digits in the wrong order. No device has that address, so PC's questions go nowhere and nothing answers. The network, the DNS server and the record are all fine.

What you will work out

Learn to tell a name-resolution problem from a network problem, and to check which DNS server a device is really asking.

Why this matters

'The internet is down' often turns out to be 'names are not resolving'. Testing a connection by address, then asking the configured server and a known-good server with dig, separates a broken network from a broken lookup in a minute, and tells you which part of the lookup to fix.

Running it

Names Don't Resolve opens on a canvas, already wired and addressed. Trace a packet through it hop by hop, or run the same topology live on real Linux network namespaces. How the two modes differ.

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