Member Avatar for rwhite16

All of the sudden within the past couple of days my server running server 2003 seems to be having some dns issues or atleast I assume they are dns. I can connect to it through remote desktop, but when I open a web browser on it and try to go to a web page (ex. google.com) it says "Internet Explorer could not open the Search Page". I have tried turning off the firewall, messing with IE's pop up blocker, looking for other security settings. This is on an outside static IP paid for and given to me from my ISP. I can ping the gateway, both of the DNS servers, and my own static IP address and I get replies. When I try to ping something like google.com "Ping request could not find the name google.com. Please check the name and try again."

Does anyone have any suggestions that can lead me further to figuring out what is going on?

Some settings to check or something ping? I would be very greatful for any help.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by crunchie

Dani AI

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Classic symptom set here: you can RDP and ping by IP, but any name like google.com fails and IE throws "could not open the Search Page." That almost always narrows to resolver trouble on the box itself rather than general connectivity. ’s note about swapping DNS servers fits that diagnosis, and ’s proxy reminder is spot on because a stale proxy can look like DNS failure.

Next time it happens, confirm and isolate with a quick triage run on the server:

ping 1.1.1.1 -n 2
nslookup google.com
nslookup google.com 8.8.8.8
ipconfig /all
ipconfig /flushdns
netsh winsock reset catalog
type %SystemRoot%\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

If ping to 1.1.1.1 works but nslookup times out or shows the wrong "Default Server," fix the NIC’s DNS list. Use two working resolvers, not just one. Make sure the DNS Client (Dnscache) service is running, flush the cache, and reset Winsock if you recently installed/uninstalled network security software. Also check the hosts file for bad entries. If nslookup google.com 8.8.8.8 succeeds but the plain nslookup fails, your configured DNS servers are the issue.

If this is a domain controller running DNS, point the server’s NIC only to its local DNS (itself or another AD DNS) and configure forwarders there; do not point a DC directly to external DNS. If it is a stand-alone server, pointing straight to external resolvers is fine, but keep at least two and remove any unreachable ones. Finally, in IE LAN settings, uncheck "Automatically detect settings" and make sure no auto-config script is set; WPAD/autoproxy misfires can trigger the IE search-page error even when DNS is healthy.

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Member Avatar for jamzen

I periodically get similar problems. Finding another (one or more) DNS servers
can help. For example, at

I used to use the ones supplied by my ISP (Verizon), but they would sometimes slow down horribly. Then I tried the ones provided by my hosting vendor, Rochenhost. That was much better but would still sometimes be slow.

Good luck.

Member Avatar for rwhite16

I periodically get similar problems. Finding another (one or more) DNS servers
can help. For example, at

I used to use the ones supplied by my ISP (Verizon), but they would sometimes slow down horribly. Then I tried the ones provided by my hosting vendor, Rochenhost. That was much better but would still sometimes be slow.

Good luck.

That fixed the problem. Thank you very much for the insight!

Member Avatar for Kira_nimir_ra

I've been having the same problem

Member Avatar for aksemt

go to tools click internet option the click on connection tab, then check the LAN settings, if proxy server is selected, remove it and try to browse again, it will work cos it solved my problem of such

Member Avatar for crunchie

Thank you, but this thread is two and a half years old and I imagine the original poster has solved the problem in that time :).

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