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AidaPakIT

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Unable to brose any .org websites

Our office has a pretty basic network setup. Comcast internet  service connected to a SonicWall router, which then has an Apple AirPort wireless router and and a linksys 8 port switch. We only have one SBS 2008 server acting as the domain controller and DNS server.

No changes have been made to any network components, but today we are unable to browse to any .org sites. .com, .net and other domains come up just fine at this point.

I am stumped as to what could be causing such a specific block, and am not sure what information would be pertinent to fully troubleshoot this.
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crouthamela
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How is DNS setup on the server? Is it using root hints or forwarding servers to outside DNS?
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sshah254

Go to something like MXTOOLBOX(.com) and query for the ip address of a .org domain.  Try to ping it ... try to do a nslookup from your network for the same domain.

If you are not getting the IP address, then it is a DNS issue (most likely with Comcast's servers) ... if you are getting an IP address, but are not able to ping it, then it may be a routing issue (unlikely that this will happen).

Also, Google gives out free DNS servers for people to use (I think it is 4.4.4.4 and 8.8.8.8 ... double check the IP addresses though).  Switch your DNS servers from Comcast to Google and see if you are able to get through (do the above mentioned tests with Google's servers too).

SS
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ASKER

Ok, making progress here.

If i set a computer on our network's DNS to 8.8.8.8, I can browse the web, but then lose the ability to get internal network DNS entries.

Our DNS server is using root hints, and has a series of a.root.servers.net for the FQDNs and has corresponding IP addresses for servers a through m (I did not set this up, and had pretty much left it alone until today)

So this seems to be a DNS issue with my server. I tried changing the DNS servers for the router to 8.8.8.8 and 4.4.4.4 and nothing changed. What settings might be causing this on my server though?
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crouthamela
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That worked like a charm. thanks for the info!

Just out of curiosity, do you think there was something wrong with the root-server.net servers, or could something in my system have triggered this issue?
I would say something in your server. If the root hint servers have a problem, everyone does.