Comments on: Why is this computer using secondary dns server instead of primary?

By: rechil

rechil — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:38:53 +0000

Secondary dns servers are there mostly as backup for the primary, since most function on the Internet is so dependent on these servers being available. In most cases, it is not a good idea to have both a web server and a dns server on the same computer.

By: koohiisan

koohiisan — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:59:37 +0000

FYI, 4.2.2.x addresses are not related to OpenDNS. (see http://www.handcoding.com/archives/2005/04/15/alternate-dns-servers/)

By: kfaganjr

kfaganjr — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 21:07:13 +0000

If you haven’t already, I would try to set the DNS settings under the advanced TCP/IP settings instead of setting a primary and secondary in basic options. You may be getting to the secondary simply because it’s less hops, where setting the DNS servers in order of use under advanced should only use the next server on the list if the first is unavailable or unable to resolve the request.

By: ingram87

ingram87 — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 02:34:57 +0000

My clients are pointing to the internal dns server, and there are forwarders setup on it using OpenDNS servers. That part works fine for everybody. The problem is for the people one workstation that shouldn’t be using OpenDNS.
4.2.2.1 is not an OpenDNS server, it is a Verizon DNS server. And as I already said, If i set the workstations primary dns server to 4.2.2.1, OpenDNS does not effect it, but then I can not resolve names on the local network. So I set my internal DNS server (192.168.1.200) as the secondary dns server. With this setup, all internet names should be resolved by the primary dns server (4.2.2.1), and internal names would fail, then go to the secondary dns server (192.168.1.200).
However, it’s not doing this. When it’s set like that, OpenDNS still blocks stuff, which means that the internet names aren’t being resolved by the primary dns server, they are being resolved by the secondary dns server. I can’t figure out why this is happening.