Windows 10 can't resolve hostnames - ping with IP works but not with hostname

Question

Facts:

The browser doesn't load any pages, whether they are addressed with IP or hostname.
ping google.com doesn't work, returning Ping request could not find host google.com.
ping 216.58.209.78 (google IP) does work, sending and receiving all packets.
nslookup google.com does work, returning correct IP address that then does indeed work with ping.
Network settings are default, IP and DNS are set to auto.
Specifying OpenDNS in network settings does not help.
There are no entries in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\host
There are no DNS prefixes in use.
netsh winsock reset & netsh int ip reset does not help.
DNS client is running.
The most common given solution on the Internet ipconfig /flushdns & ipconfig /registerdns does not work, with latter returning Registration of DNS records failed: Parameter is not correct. It happens occassionally to people, but I have not found possible solutions to this problem. I sense this might be the key to my ordeal.
All of the above happens for different networks.
The PC has been recently formatted. One guy had the same problem and it helped to restore the previous PC name, but I have no way of finding what the name was before the format.

ipconfig /all is as below. The first paragraph looks a bit blank, perhaps something there...?

Windows IP Configuration

   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : 
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . : 
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 2C-60-0C-9B-A8-89
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Wireless LAN adapter PoĄczenie lokalne* 2:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : AE-E0-10-65-58-B9
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Karta sieciowa Broadcom 802.11n
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : AC-E0-10-65-58-B9
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::fc42:138f:fb5a:f6ff%12(Preferred) 
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.172(Preferred) 
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 21 grudnia 2015 22:16:55
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 28 grudnia 2015 22:21:43
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 217.172.224.160
                                       192.168.0.1
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.{9E3DA69D-E183-4041-9944-35B59277B529}:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : 
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Setting DNS to 8.8.8.8 doesn't work, see replies to suggestions beneath.
It doesn't resolve local hostnames either. The machine doesn't respond to pings from local network.

Any ideas how to proceed? Help my dad enjoy his internet!

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 29 '15 at 21:20

3

a. You can try to manually set the dns servers to the google ones: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

b. You can try another wireless adapter

c. You can try a linux live cd and verify if the issues are still present

answered Dec 29 '15 at 21:20

alexandrul

1,082

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 23 '16 at 16:31

I just came across this same issue on a Windows 10 Dell tablet that one of my users brought into the office. Same issue, communications via IP work, but name resolution not working (aside from nslookup, oddly that was working fine).

After digging into this for a few minutes I also discovered that the tablet was missing a hostname entry when doing an ipconfig /all (same as shown in your screenshot above), so I went into the System properties and found that there was no computer name set in there. Added a computer name, rebooted, et voila! Name resolution is now working properly.

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 25 '19 at 01:26

2

I had the same problem, but the hostname was present. In addition, running ipconfig /flushdns would hang. Changing the hostname by adding a 2 to the end and then rebooting seems to have fixed the problem.

edited Mar 25 '19 at 01:26

karel

13,706

answered Mar 25 '19 at 01:10

Sean

21

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 29 '15 at 21:40

I've had these symptoms two or three times in the past after installing a new NIC or router, using WinXP and Win7. Solutions varied, but in one case the issue was resolved by unticking the "use NetBIOS over TCP" box. In the other case I remember having to run some unusual command line utility (not ipconfig /flushdns; something else that I don't quite recall) to flush cached somethingsomethingsomething. One thing I'd check is whether local (LAN side) hostnames resolve ok. If it's only WAN side hostnames that don't resolve properly then at least you know the problem is not on your PC.

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 24 '17 at 16:05

In my case, I have hyper-v manager installed and has one virtual switch that bridges my NIC with it. Try disabling/removing the virtual switch in hyper-v manager (elevated user needed). This one works for me. Maybe Windows 10 or hyper-v has a buggy virtual switch.

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 22 '21 at 14:46

In my case setting the host name was not enough - it didn't help. What was missing is the Domain entry in the registry at HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Domain also.

I have no idea how did it happen to my PC, maybe after some system crash or during the recovery the entry went missing. (Because there were some problems and I did recover my system with dism and sfc.)

So after I created this registry entry (just with the empty value) - it started working immediately even without reboot. It took me many hours and I tried probably everything I could google out until I finally bumped on the answer here - Windows 7 DNS not working (nslookup IS working; ping -4 name.com NOT working).

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 30 '15 at 02:00

The fact that the computer was recently reformatted could indicate a problem with the drivers for your network adapter(s).

Open "View network connections" and try disabling each adapter one-by-one. After disabling each one, test the DNS and then re-enable it. Perhaps you'll find one that's causing your DNS problems - if you do, you could try reinstalling the driver for that particular adapter.

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 10 '16 at 17:43

0

All the things suggested by other posters failed, so I resorted to drastic measures and did a full format with a fresh Win 10 install. It did work.

answered Jan 10 '16 at 17:43

user2551153

301

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Nov 22 '24 at 22:41

A corrupt registry may cause this issue. Recommend to backup Tcpip hive, compare side by side with same hive from another computer of similar configuration (same domain, same windows version...) Or reinstall/repair Windows. I fixed the problem setting the keys under [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]:

NameServer="",
HostName="MYLAPTOP" (without domain),
Domain="my-company.com",
ICSDomain="mshome.net",
"NV Hostname"="MYLAPTOP",
"NV Domain"="my-company.com"

stapmoshun · Answer 10 · 2025-01-01T02:53:37.047

None of the above answers worked. I had to disable the DNS Client service in services.msc and reboot the computer. The option to disable the service is greyed out in the GUI, so I had to edit the registry:

Go to HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Dnscache\and edit the Start value. Change it to 4 to set it to Disabled.

Then I could actually go to google.com in the browser.

EDIT: This only caused it to work for 20 seconds after I booted up, after which it would go back to broken. I used Reset this PC and it worked.

If you are still having this issue and you do not want to reset your PC, I would suggest to do in an elevated powershell:

Get-DnsClientNrptRule | Remove-DnsClientNrptRule -Force
netsh interface ipv4 delete winsservers name="Ethernet" all
netsh interface ipv4 delete winsservers name="Wi-Fi" all
rasdial /disconnect
net start dnscache
net stop dnscache
ping google.com

Windows 10 can't resolve hostnames - ping with IP works but not with hostname

10 Answers10