firstspot name resolve not working properly

pkolb · Joined: 11 Jun 2008 Posts: 5

hi,

we've tried the trial version of firstspot for a few weeks and bought full version a few months ago, but firstspot's dns-server never worked as it should.
i've fixed that with a little workaround: in dhcp settings i put public dns server and also put them in exception free websites ... that worked fine but the instant keywords never worked that way.

the problem is that we need them now because we put up a public internet pc.
another issue came up since: if i close the infobox it takes about 30 seconds until firstspot closes the user's session. so working instant keywords would be fine.

if i put 0.0.0.0 as dns in dhcp settings, the domain lookup doesn't work that well. exception free websites are fine, they come up immediately. if i try to visit a normal page i.e. google.de it redirects after while to the login page but after putting in credentials the domain lookup mostly times out

long story short, i rather post the ipconfig output and config.ini with firstspot working as dns-server

thanks in advance

ipconfig /all

alan · **Forum facilitator** Joined: 26 Sep 2003 Posts: 4435

See http://patronsoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7207#7207
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pkolb · Joined: 11 Jun 2008 Posts: 5

i tried that already endless times way before posting with 7 different dns server of our isp which are definitely up and working

alan · **Forum facilitator** Joined: 26 Sep 2003 Posts: 4435

First, you need to use nslookup (issue at both client and FirstSpot machine) to confirm DNS is working. Accessing web site as a test is not accurate as sometimes the web site or the dns request is cache.

As the previous link suggested, please:
1) change the DNS of your Public Network Interface to ONLY one entry
2) issue nslookup in the FirstSpot machine to make sure the DNS request is working correctly
3) restart FirstSpot
4) now, re-test your client access performance.

P.S. : "Logout automatically when Infobox is closed" is not real time. So it is normal that you need to wait for while before client is disconnected.
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pkolb · Joined: 11 Jun 2008 Posts: 5

CaptainProton · Joined: 08 Jan 2008 Posts: 14

I have got the same problem since about one week. it was running perfect for a long time.

It is exactly the same problem as you described above.

I even reinstalled the the operatingsystem and firstspot on the server. but the problem remains!?

How did you solve it?

pkolb · Joined: 11 Jun 2008 Posts: 5

i didn't... problem still remains.

i'm living with a workaround as described above.
but if you ever solve the problem please let me know ... good luck Smile

CaptainProton · Joined: 08 Jan 2008 Posts: 14

Since this issue occured so unexpectedly, I could imagine it to be related to the vunerability of DNS-Servers that has been discovered lately. Mybe my provider patched it and that keeps FS from forwarding requests. If my clients use the DNS-IP of my Internetprovider instead of the FS-IP als primary DNS in the network settings, everything is working fine.

somehow I solved the problem after one day of work.
I dont really know how, but that is what I did:

First I reinstalled the windows 2003 and FS on the server.
That did not help. clients still could not resolve domain names.

Then I installed FS on a computer running XP. Same problem.

Then I tried it with a different internetprovider (B). And it worked. In both cases [b]the only DNS Server entered in the FS-public-network adapter was the router's IP[/b]. But with my original provider, it still did not.

So I entered ONE of my [b]ISPs DNS[/b] (not the router IP) in the public interface and it works now.
To my surprise...
Because: since months it was working no matter what I entered as DNS in the public interface (Router IP, DNS-IP of ISP, one or more DNS-IPs).

Something must have changed on the providers side.

What is your workaround???

pkolb · Joined: 11 Jun 2008 Posts: 5

i also entered my isp's dns-server address in firstspot's dhcp settings, thats working fine.

the thing is that instant keywords like "logout" won't work that way, but that is what i need.

we have one public pc in a hospital and the patients sometimes forget to logout or close the infobox ... problem was, that you can't logout once the infobox is closed, so i reduced the timeout and set the option "logout when infobox is closed" to true, but this is not in "real-time" ... it takes up to 30 sec until it really logs out...
because of the law we have to log the users visited sites, but if you can't logout one user always will be logged in because the public pc is busy almost all day.... i think you can guess what the problem is...

at the moment we can't charge the patients for surfing because of that

our isp changed all dns-server a while ago to prevent users from other isps using them ... maybe same yours did

anyway the problem is not the isp, its inside firstspot's dns-system ... sometimes it seems like the dns request gets lost in a loop