Arch Linux

ZeroG

Member

Registered: 2008-06-07

Posts: 3

Firefox suddenly can't connect to the Internet (Address Not Found)

OK, so I recently bought a netbook (Asus eeePC) and put Arch on it to dual-boot. I took it with me on a business trip last week, and I was so impressed with Arch I decided to put it on my desktop today (I had used Arch before, but not for a long time). So, as I was chugging along, I pulled up Firefox on my netbook (it's handy to have a secondary computer while installing Linux), and it gave me an "Address Not Found" error when pulling up Google. Firefox had been working just fine (wired or wireless Internet) for all of last week, and I haven't changed anything.

What's extremely strange is that everything else works. I could pull up Google in Lynx, and I was listening to an Internet radio station (Groove Salad) using cmus, and it worked just fine. Figuring it was just a fluke, I kept going and discovered that I had the same problem on the Desktop once I got around to gettting Xorg and Fluxbox working and after I installed Firefox. It's very strange - the computers are quite different (the netbook is running i686, and the desktop is running x86_64). I have a home file/web server running Gentoo, and I'm able to run Firefox on it using ssh/X-Forwarding, and it works just fine. I can also pull up my server on Firefox on both the Laptop and the Desktop (just on the LAN, not the Internet). I also tried installing SeaMonkey on the netbook just to see, and I got the same results - it can't access Google or anything. Both computers are dual-booting Windows XP and Arch, and Firefox works on Windows for both computers.

This might be the strangest error I've ever run into on Linux - I'm not sure what to do next to diagnose the issue. I'll gladly post any information anyone thinks is relevant. Any ideas?

Statix

Member

From: Hangzhou, China

Registered: 2008-02-16

Posts: 240

Re: Firefox suddenly can't connect to the Internet (Address Not Found)

To me, that sounds like your computers aren't happy with your DNS servers.

Take a look at your /etc/resolv.conf

Typically it's your gateway, like 192.168.0.1. That's because your router usually provides your computers with their DNS servers. This doesn't seem to be happening here.

Try replacing the nameserver line in there with:

nameserver 208.67.222.222
nameserver 208.67.220.220

Those are the OpenDNS free DNS servers.

If that fixes it, then indeed your router is not providing DNS servers properly. You'd then need to look into your router config and manually put in those OpenDNS servers above or your ISP's.

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Madly in love with Arch64, Openbox, DotA, and of course... penguins!
Happy to help if you're not a Help Vampire. Use your wonderful resources like ArchWiki, Google, and our wonderful search page.

JeremyTheWicked

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-05-23

Posts: 193

Re: Firefox suddenly can't connect to the Internet (Address Not Found)

I had a similar problem. It turned out to be my ISP's fault - they assigned more DNS servers to my network and the problem disappeared (the problem was consistent across Arch/Ubuntu/Win7 though). It was the same thing - everything except web browser had internet connection...

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arch(3) adj amused because you think you understand something better than other people ;P

windtalker

Member

Registered: 2008-03-17

Posts: 220

Re: Firefox suddenly can't connect to the Internet (Address Not Found)

You may also open FF up and go to /edit/preferences/advanced/network and make sure your network settings configuration hasn't been somehow changed.

ZeroG

Member

Registered: 2008-06-07

Posts: 3

Re: Firefox suddenly can't connect to the Internet (Address Not Found)

It's definitely a DNS issue. I tried as Statix suggested above and it worked after a little tweaking. I went back and checked my modem, and it listed two DNS servers. I put those in resolv.conf manually and they worked too. My router or modem (192.168.0.1 and 192.168.1.254 respectively) should each be able to handle DNS on their own, but for some reason they aren't. I know it works; Windows XP and Gentoo both set their nameservers to 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.1.254 using DHCP and have no issues. When I tried DHCP on Arch, these were the relevant sections of rc.conf:

eth0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(eth0)

gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)

I tried using ROUTES=(gateway) as well (no effect). When I did that, DHCP automatically set my resolv.conf to:

# Generated by dhcpcd
# /etc/resolv.conf.head can replace this line
nameserver 192.168.1.254
nameserver 192.168.0.1
# /etc/resolv.conf.tail can replace this line

So changing the eth0 line in rc.conf to:

eth0="eth0 192.168.0.100 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"

And putting the nameservers in resolv.conf from the values my modem listed works, but it shouldn't be necessary. I'd rather have it send DNS requests to the router or modem like my other systems work, but at least I have a workaround for the time being. My time is a bit limited, but I'll keep looking into it when I have the chance and post whatever I find. If anyone has any other ideas, I'd appreciate it though. Thanks!