Cant Access Microsoft Sites

[TP998]

I have set up the server as described, I can go on-line but i cant access any Microsoft sites or activate my copy, this only affects the machine which is running the server all my other networked machines can connect ok. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Tom

[Arris]

So you are saying you can’t go to http://www.microsoft.com/ or http://207.46.193.254/? If only the second url works it must be some DNS problem. You can also try a tracert to microsoft.com (207.46.193.254): Start -> Run -> cmd.exe -> tracert 207.46.193.254 and see how far your ICMP packets can get.

To activate your copy without having to connect to the Microsoft servers, use the phone activation. More info about that in the following topic: Activation problem 🙁.

Things that could be between your server and Microsoft.com:
* Hosts file (%windir%System32Driversetchosts)
* (Windows) Firewall
* Filthy DNS cache (clean up using commandline: ipconfig /flushdns)
* Non-working dns (check using commandline tool: nslookup)
* Filters in Router/IPS/Switches
* …

Good luck!

[TP998]

Thanks for the help, I will give it a try 😀

[TP998]

It appears to be a DNS error, I’m not sure how to fix it i have tried clearing the cache and when i tried nslookup it couldn’t find a server name

Any help would be appreciated

[Arris]

Try the following in the command prompt:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6001]

Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.



C:UsersAdministrator>nslookup

Default Server:  speedtouch.lan

Address:  192.168.1.254



> server 208.67.222.222

Default Server:  resolver1.opendns.com

Address:  208.67.222.222



> www.win2008workstation.com

Server:  resolver1.opendns.com

Address:  208.67.222.222



Non-authoritative answer:

Name:    www.win2008workstation.com.lan

Address:  67.215.65.132



> quit



C:UsersAdministrator>ping 208.67.222.222 -n 1



Pinging 208.67.222.222 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 208.67.222.222: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=56



Ping statistics for 208.67.222.222:

Packets: Sent = 1, Received = 1, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

Minimum = 16ms, Maximum = 16ms, Average = 16ms



C:UsersAdministrator>

If you get the same kind of result you can manually set your DNS server manually to the ip 208.67.222.222 which is an OpenDNS server.

You can set your DNS Server manually by going to the Network and Sharing Center in the Control Panel where you click Manage network connections. Open the Properties of the networkinterface that connects to the internet(gateway) and open the Properties of the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) item. Click Use the following DNS server addresses and enter as Preferred DNS server 208.67.222.222 and as Alternate DNS server 208.67.220.220. Save your settings by clicking OK and your internet should work fine now!

[TP998]

Thanks for the help, I managed to connect and activate my copy
😀

Many Thanks Tom

[Arris]

Hey Tom, good to hear that! It’s still weird that it couldn’t use the DNS server assigned via DHCP. However, I’m glad it works! 🙂

[Author]

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