title: Windows is SO helpful or, cache is evil link: https://onemoretech.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/windows-is-so-helpful-or-cache-is-evil/ author: lembobro description: post_id: 144 created: 2010/07/13 19:09:29 created_gmt: 2010/07/13 19:09:29 comment_status: open post_name: windows-is-so-helpful-or-cache-is-evil status: publish post_type: post

Windows is SO helpful or, cache is evil

It’s not Microsoft’s fault that desktop computing, computer in general really, is built on a foundation of sand, always threatening to give way and leave you homeless without warning.

I am, of course, speaking of how Windows caches network information. Read on for my solution.

One of the most annoying things about desktop computing on Windows is how it “helpfully” caches network information. I usually run into this when I first get home and try accessing something on my home network.

Even though my DHCP server has duly handed out my internal DNS server addresses to the XP network stack, and an ipconfig /all shows that XP “knows” about them, it still can’t resolve names on my internal network. The only thing I can do at that point is to flush the XP network cache. There are two basic commands I usually use:

nbtstat -R
	
ipconfig /flushdns

The first clears out any residual NetBIOS (old-style Microsoft networking) cache, because after all, NetBIOS rules).

The second explicitly flushes the Windows DNS cache so it actually queries your preferred DNS server(s).

There’s a third procedure I just discovered today, posted by a cable Internet support guy.

1. Click on START… RUN > and type in cmd > Press Enter or click OK.
2. At the prompt, type in netsh and hit Enter. You will then have a netsh> prompt.
3. Type interface and hit Enter. The prompt will then say netsh interface>.
4. Type ip and hit Enter. The Prompt will read netsh interface ip>.
5. Finally type reset tcplog.txt. It will then dump and rebuild TCP/IP.
6. Type quit and hit Enter to exit the netsh interface ip> prompt.

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