I've just completed a particularly stubborn installation of XP Pro on an archaic system (it's for a particular use - internet for the moment, and as a file server later).

Everything was set up fine, with no internet issues, but at some point in the hour I last accessed the web on this machine through my router, I lost all ability to resolve DNS on the machine. It wasn't my connection as prooved by the fact that other machines were fine - it was the computer in particular.

On looking through the event viewer, there are repeated entries informing me that the DNS Cache service had timed out due to not responding for more than 3000 mS. I disabled the service "DNS Client" and all was fine again.

Now I know the DNS Client service being disabled isn't right, and I'm kinda hoping somebody else has seen this before, because to be honest I don't have a clue what's caused this little oddity. Any ideas?

Have you tried "ipconfig /flushdns" with the dns client on? Do you have any manual entries in your host file?

yes to both - however, I know the HOSTS file is perfectly good - I use the same file on a nuber of machines through copying and pasting.

Did you get this one figured out?

If not; What was the event ID for the cache error?

I couldn't figure it out to be honest - I'd built the machine for a community business (not for profit) and had to integrate it into their network. If it was mine I'd have kept at it, but sadly I had to re-install it.

Can't win 'em all.