Hello boys, I have a really strange question for you.

I have a D-LINK ADSL modem / router / wireless access point, on which I have connected two PCs and a laptop. One of the PCs and the laptop have Windows XP, while on the second PC I recently installed Mandrake 10.1.

Now, let’s describe the problem on the Linux box: When I ping whatever server on the Internet, everything is OK. On the contrary, when I try to connect via http (either from the X or simply using lynx) then no site can be reached unless I ping it (or nslookup it) first!

For example:

# lynx a.site
Nothing happens and the screen remains at "Making HTTP connection to a.site"

# ping a.site
PING a.site (64.179.4.149) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from a.site (64.179.4.149): icmp_seq=1 ttl=52 time=121 ms

Then immediately afterwards

# lynx a.site
works fine!

Now, the really impressive thing: I do not need to ping from the Linux box, I can also ping from the Windows PC; the http request from the Linux box will then work normally!!!!

So:

# ping a.site
Nothing happens as previously; Now I am going to the laptop:

C:\Documents and Settings\Petros>ping a.site

Pinging a.site [64.179.4.149] with 32 bytes of data:

And then again on the Linux machine:

# lynx a.site
works!

What the hell is going on? Any suggestions?

That's odd. Is the nameserver listed in /etc/resolv.conf your router? Perhaps it has buggy firmware of some sort... try placing your ISP's nameserver there.

Thank you and congratulations my friend... I replaced the nameservers in /etc/resolv.conf with the ones of my ISP (although I understand that this is just a workaround, since these are subject to change) and it worked...

Do you think that this might be a bug in D-LINK's firmware?

That would be my likely guess. Or, perhaps, but probably not, a problem in the dns resolving library in your linux installation.