Windows 10 DNS setting sporadically reverts to old (incorrect) address

dnsnetworkingwindows 10wireless-networking

This is a problem that occurs often (but not always) on my Windows 10 laptop… I turn it on and connect to a wi-fi network; and I get the icon that means "connected, but no internet". When this happens, I go to the "Network connections" and look at the Wi-fi properties. Under TCP/IPv4, I find that it is set to "Obtain IP address automatically"; but the DNS server address has reverted to an old (and incorrect) DNS address that I had once entered manually. I click the box that says "Obtain DNS server address automatically", click OK, and then all is fine — until this happens again.

How can I get my system to forget that old, wrong DNS address once and for all?

Best Answer

To clear your DNS cache:

On your keyboard, press Win+X to open the WinX Menu.
Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.
Run the following command:

ipconfig /flushdns

If the command succeeds, the system returns the following message:

Windows IP configuration successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.

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Networking – No internet connection with “Obtain DNS server address automatically” IPv4 settings

It can be a bit confusing. The router's DNS setting sets where the router goes to perform queries (this is usually an internal DNS server). There's also a DNS setting in the DHCP section, which is what the router tells your workstations to use when using the "Obtain IP address automatically" setting.

All that said, an internal DNS is not absolutely required, if you can live without certain internal features (e.g., internal email servers usually also require an internal DNS server).

8.8.8.8 is the IP address for Google's free DNS service. Based on what you've provided, I can assume:

you have no internal e-mail or DNS server
most of your business is Internet or cloud based (e.g., employees use GMail or some other similar service)
for some reason, you don't want to use your ISP's DNS service (if you do, there should be a setting in the DHCP section)

Also, the Dynamic DNS should be left disabled. It's used when you want to advertise a server on your work's network when: 1) your external IP tends to change over time (e.g., you're paying for a residential connection) or 2) you want to avoid paying for a zone (e.g., you want to use one of the "free" services.

Windows DNS – Specific DNS Setting for One Wi-Fi Connection

You can use PowerShell to configure your network. You can use these combinations to manually set addresses and reset them to automatic:

Get-NetAdapter -Name "Your_Network_Adapter_Name" | Set-DnsClientServerAddress -ServerAddresses 8.8.8.8,8.8.4.4

Get-NetAdapter -Name "Your_Network_Adapter_Name" | Set-DnsClientServerAddress -ResetServerAddresses

You should add some conditional statements to determine which network you're connecting to.

How to run them automatically when you connect? You can use system events log and Windows scheduler. I can't provide you every needed information (whole solution) but I can give you some starting points.

This is how you run PowerShell scripts with Windows scheduler.

This is how you determine if you connected to network using events log.

You should setup scheduler job to run when triggered by event.

I'm assuming that you have intermediate knowledge about computers, because you're changing DNS settings for your needs. If you don't, just change adapter settings to "automatic".

Best Answer

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Networking – No internet connection with “Obtain DNS server address automatically” IPv4 settings

Windows DNS – Specific DNS Setting for One Wi-Fi Connection

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