DNS doesn't seem to work

[Chris Mohler]

On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 6:42 PM, Pete Clapham <peteclapham at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Hi --
>
> I just set up a machine with Ubuntu Server.  Everything appears to work fine
> EXCEPT it's not connected to DNS.  For example, I can ping an IP number, but
> I can't ping the same site by name.  ifconfig is correct;
> /etc/network/interfaces is correct; /etc/resolv.conf is correct as well.
> The behavior of the system suggests that the interface isn't communicating
> with the DNS servers indicated in the resolv.conf file.  I suspect that
> there's a configuration file I've overlooked.  Any ideas?

Try "dig ubuntu.com" or "dig ubuntu.com @<ip_address_in_resolv.conf>"

If that times out or doesn't return an A record, try "telnet
<ip_address_in_resolv.conf> 53" - if that works, the DNS server might
be wonky/misconfigured.  If not, perhaps it's firewall-related, the
wrong IP, or the DNS server is down...

Chris