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If Sygate was working fine, but all of a sudden you can't browse the web or
send/receive email from any of your client computers, you may have a DNS problem:
Use this information only if you are using Sygate's DHCP server to assign
IP address information to your Client machines, i.e. your Clients are set
to obtain their IP address information automatically or from a DHCP
server.
10/13/99
This page has been changed to show an easier way to specify secondary DSN servers for Sygate.
Click here if you want to see the old page,
which has an alternate method for doing this.
Most, if not all, ISPs have multiple servers for each of their major functions, such as
DNS, POP, SMTP, etc. If one server fails, in most cases the TCP/IP "stack"
in your operating system knows how to find the backup servers.
When you are using Sygate (or any other sharing program) to share your connection, it
interacts with your ISP to find out the addresses of its servers. It then passes
that information to any sharing Client machines as needed.
Your ISP's DNS server in particular plays a very important function. It
translates all of the address name information ( www.blahblah.com) you
give to your browser, email, and other Internet programs into the IP addresses (204.71.200.245)
that are actually needed to communicate with the servers.
If you open up your browser one day and find that it won't display any sites, first try
entering an IP address in your browser's Location box and see if the site comes up.
Here are some sites that are usually up and can be used for this check:
If you get a webpage, you have a DNS problem. Read on!
Sygate 3, by default, keeps only the information for your ISP's primary DNS
server. If that server goes down, Sygate doesn't know how to switch to the backup
servers (unless you tell it how... more below), so it will look like all of your Client
computers have lost their Internet connection. The machine that is running Sygate,
however, will probably be able to access the Internet just fine, since it doesn't depend
on Sygate for its Internet connection.
Follow these steps to tell your Clients how to reach the backup DNS servers:
(if you have a MacOS
computer, go to this page to find out how
to access the TCP/IP properties. Enter all the DNS server IP addresses in the Name
Server Addr: box.)
1) Go to the computer that is running Sygate and click on Start > Run and
type winipcfg to bring up the winipcfg program.
Click the More Info >> button in the winipcfg window.
2) At the top of the window will be a button that looks like a box with 3 dots (...) in
it. (See the diagram below.)
To the left of this box is the DNS box, which usually displays your primary DNS
server. Clicking the box with the 3 dots will cycle to the secondary DNS servers. There
are usually 2-3 DNS servers total. Write down all the addresses you find and close
winipcfg.
3) Open the Sygate Manager. Go to the Tools menu, select Configuration
and click on the Advanced button. You'll see a window like shown below.
Enter the DNS server IP addresses that you obtained in Step 2 into the DNS Server
Search Order boxes and click the Add button after each one. Enter them
in the order that you found them in winipcfg.
(The screen shot below shows one address already entered and the second one ready for
clicking the Add button. DO NOT enter these addresses.
They are dummies. Enter the addresses you obtained with the winipcfg
program.).
Click the OK button to close the Advanced Settings window, then
click the OK button to close the Sygate Manager Configuration
window. Answer Yes when Sygate asks to restart.
4) Go to each Client computer and run winipcfg.
Click on the Release All button and wait for it to finish (ignore any messages
that may come up).
Click on the Renew All button and wait for it to finish.
You should probably also reboot before you try your Client connection.
Use this information only if you are using Sygate's DHCP server to assign
IP address information to your Client machines, i.e. your Clients are set
to obtain their IP address information automatically or from a DHCP
server.
if you have a MacOS
computer, go to 
