[WEB4LIB] Netscape stalls "looking up host"

[Darryl Friesen]

Sounds like network trouble.  Are the TCP/IP settings used for the WFW and the
Win95 machines the same, especially with respect to name servers (DNS)?  (It's
the DNS server that resolves host names into IP addresses).

 We list 2 or 3 name servers in our IP configurations; should one machine go
down or not respond for some reason (ie. it's very busy) then the next one in
the list is used to resolve the host name.

It could also be just the slowness of the P75 machines themselves.  I'm
guessing that these machines also have older network cards which probably
don't perform as well as the ones in the P200's.  The Chameleon TCP/IP
protocol probably isn't as fast as the IP implementation in Win95  either.  We
see the same kind of thing with our older machines (Windows for Workgroups,
Microsoft's TCP/IP stack, older 3Com network cards) -- everything that do on
the network takes much longer than newer machines with newer network cards and
Win95.

A few things to try:

- make sure you've got more than one name server in your IP
  configuration (assuming you have more than one machine on your
  network that functions as a name server
- Look for updates/patches for Windows for Workgroups (specifically
  network patches; there are several), the network card, as well as
  the Chameleon TCP/IP protocol
- Try Microsoft's 32-bit TCP/IP stack for Windows for Workgroups
  instead of Chameleon.  We've never tried NetManage's IP stack, so I
  can't really comment on it, but we've used Microsoft's for years
  and it works really well.  And it's free.


- Darryl

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
   Darryl Friesen, B.Sc., Programmer/Analyst    Darryl.Friesen at usask.ca
   Consulting & Development                     http://gollum.usask.ca/
   Department of Computing Services                 163 Murray Building
   University of Saskatchewan                              Main Library
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  "The Truth Is Out There"


----- Original Message -----
From: Tom Zimoski <tzimoski at sjvls.lib.ca.us>
To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Sent: December 8, 1998 7:39 PM
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Netscape stalls "looking up host"


>I posted the following many weeks ago in another forum and the only
>suggestion I got was to clear both the memory and disk caches.
>
>
>We have the following problem with some Pentium 75 machines running
>Windows for Workgroups, Chameleon (NetManage) TCP/IP and Netscape 3.04. It
>is very common to be unable to retrieve a web page the first time one
>trys.  The "Connect:Looking up host message" displays but we don't get
>beyond that point.  However, if one presses Esc or clicks on Stop then
>tries a second time we get almost immediately to at least the "Waiting for
>reply" stage.
>
>This happens even with our home page, located on a machine upstairs in
>our building.  I have discovered that we don't have this problem reaching
>the home page if we enter it's IP (numerical) address.
>
>Once you know what to do about it it's not a serious problem, but at
>the public library where I work this means that many people must
>remember to tell many other people about it every day.
>
>We don't have this problem with our Pentium 200 machines with
>Windows95, its native TCP/IP,  and the Windows95 version of Netscape
>3.04.  (Yes, I do see the outlines of a solution here but it ain't
>gonna happen anytime soon)
>
>Any suggestions about what might be causing this problem?  The fact that
>the second try works almost every time makes me think there might be some
>small tweek could help a lot.
>
>Thanks for your attention.
>
>
>Tom Zimoski
>Fresno County Library
>Fresno, CA
>tzimoski at sjvls.lib.ca.us
>
>
>