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DHCP and DNS OK for wired, but wireless Wii does not get DNS

Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 2:32 pm
by servalan
Just set up Amahi properly tonight and turned off my router DHCP. Great job, by the way, Amahi seems to be exactly what I was looking for!

Everything is fine, except that my Wii's wireless connection does not seem to 'see' the DNS server, meaning that a URL like http://hda does not work on the Wii, but is fine on my other (wired network connection) PC.

On both the PC and Wii external URLs are fine. I can reach the HDA from the Wii with an IP address (192.168.1.10), but not http://hda

Is this a router problem (mine's a ZyXel)? I can't see anything in the menus to indicate a workaround or solution.

Any networking/router experts out there with any bright ideas?

Re: DHCP and DNS OK for wired, but wireless Wii does not get

Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 2:42 pm
by cale250
Most consoles should have an option to "Renew IP" or "Obtain Release". A total-power-off or complete reset should also do the trick for the Wii, as it sounds like it hasn't gained a release from the HDA. ;)

Re: DHCP and DNS OK for wired, but wireless Wii does not get

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 12:08 am
by servalan
No, it's not that. The Wii has a lease, otherwise it wouldn't be able to access the internet, and because I can see in the Amahi control panel that an IP has been issued to wii.home.com.

In fact it is weirder than that. It isusing the DNS, because when I tried to go to http://hda, the page I got back was the OpenDNS 'cannot find the URL you are looking for' page, indicating that in fact the Wii is using the Amahi DNS server.

What it can't seem to do, then, is resolve local network DNS addresses such as http://hda, but it can resolve external DNS entries such as http://amahi.org :?:

So what is the problem? the Opera browser, the Wii itself, or just the fact that it's a wireless connection to my router? None of them sound very likely to me...

Re: DHCP and DNS OK for wired, but wireless Wii does not get

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 11:34 pm
by radioz
In fact it is weirder than that. It isusing the DNS, because when I tried to go to http://hda, the page I got back was the OpenDNS 'cannot find the URL you are looking for' page, indicating that in fact the Wii is using the Amahi DNS server.
That sounds exactly like what will happen if the Wii is NOT getting its dns from your HDA. Have you checked the DNS IP address setting on your Wii? It should be set to that of your hda.

Do you have other systems on your network and can they resolve http://hda to your hda properly?

Re: DHCP and DNS OK for wired, but wireless Wii does not get

Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 4:53 am
by servalan
Do you have other systems on your network and can they resolve http://hda to your hda properly?
Yes, as I said above, other PCs on the network resolve all the local addresses without problems
That sounds exactly like what will happen if the Wii is NOT getting its dns from your HDA. Have you checked the DNS IP address setting on your Wii? It should be set to that of your hda.
I don't understand how that can be true. I thought that part of the DHCP process was automatically indicating to the connecting machine which DNS addresses to use. Surely if the Wii was not using the Amahi server DNS addresses, then the 'cannot find the URL you are looking for' page would still be my regular Tiscali one via my ISPs DNS, rather then the OpenDNS one.

Re: DHCP and DNS OK for wired, but wireless Wii does not get

Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 12:40 am
by servalan
Well, i've investigated as much as I am going to with the following results (but no solution :( ):

My Wii is set up to pick up DNS servers automatically (from the Amahi DHCP server)

Neither hda or http://hda are resolved, returning the OpenDNS error page
home.com returns a straightforward 404-Page not found error, meaning the Amahi DNS server has attempted to resolve the address, but that no web server is known at that address (which is also correct)
hda.home.com resolves to the Amahi login page as expected

From this I deduce that something in my setup, probably the Wii itself but maybe the way the wireless connection is handled at the router, does not like a web address request without a Top Level Domain (.com, .org, etc.) and redirects straight to the OpenDNS error page.

I don't understand why, or how the DNS server is being bypassed (given that it happily resolves hda on my wired clients), but I don't think there are any (easy) things I can do to investigate further, and I'm quite happy to live with it as it is.

Maybe its just an Opera browser thing, whereby it thinks I'm trying to do a search rather than enter a web address... :?: