feedback for a test... (ping our DNS server please)

[stilly]

SO compared to some folks out there I know a little something about computers and compared to others I am NEO himself...

I was recently faced with the task of pinging the dns server starting from the desktop of a windows XP system.

I went to CMD and pulled up the info via IPCONFIG

I saw the DNS suffix (and it was listed as a domain, no ip address, but it had an address) and I pointed it out and then typed:
ping xxxx.xxx.xx.xxxx (where the blanked info are various numbers/letters)

It pinged and I got a reply from an actual IP address which I pointed out the actual dns address.

NOW that I get home, I confirmed what I did and I SHOULD have typed IPCONFIG /ALL and the dns server would have been clearly listed for me.

Did I fail or are there several ways to find out the dns server?

If they do not call me back for a second I am so kicking myself for ****ing this up... This will be an awesome job. And the guys at the interview seemed totally cool. Nice place to work all in all, good advancement and what will really piss me off is that they did not ask ONE single MS SQL or ACTIVE DIRECTORY question so I had a great shot today and it was bad when I failed to map a network drive to a resource (that was hidden from sight) within the time frame, but hopefully they realized that I discovered my mistake and made a reference to it and the proper procedure before I left...

[bigmike82]

Another quick and easy way is to call nslookup. That'll use your first listed nameserver and show you what it is.

there are probably another ten ways to find it...

[stilly]

Another quick and easy way is to call nslookup. That'll use your first listed nameserver and show you what it is.

there are probably another ten ways to find it...

But if that was a test question then I passed it?

cause NSlookup does not work here at my comp, it says taht dns servers are not available. Prolly a firewall thing though.

[Merc1138]

But if that was a test question then I passed it?

cause NSlookup does not work here at my comp, it says taht dns servers are not available. Prolly a firewall thing though.

No, you could have failed it. The IP address for the DNS server may have been different than the DNS suffix. For all you know, the correct DNS server could have been google's at 8.8.8.8(or something else), and of course there could have been more than 1 DNS server.

Gotta know the basics man...

For example right now the DNS server my desktop is using, is actually the IP of the router since that's forwarding DNS queries to a different DNS server. While if I had pinged the dns suffix listed by ipconfig without /all(which is just the manufacturer name of the router since I'm lazy), I wouldn't get the IP for the router or the actual DNS server my router is forwarding queries to.

[stilly]

No, you could have failed it. The IP address for the DNS server may have been different than the DNS suffix. For all you know, the correct DNS server could have been google's at 8.8.8.8(or something else), and of course there could have been more than 1 DNS server.

Gotta know the basics man...

For example right now the DNS server my desktop is using, is actually the IP of the router since that's forwarding DNS queries to a different DNS server. While if I had pinged the dns suffix listed by ipconfig without /all(which is just the manufacturer name of the router since I'm lazy), I wouldn't get the IP for the router or the actual DNS server my router is forwarding queries to.

Well I believe they have an enterprise network and I thought the dns seemed similar to th ip address, similar as in the first two sets, but I could be wrong, I had a somewhat familiar feeling when I saw the numbers.

Damn, maybe I should have gone to school for this stuff after all... I would think though that if I was wrong, they would see that at least I had a clue as to what tools to call up to use. :\

[Merc1138]

Your answer may have been right or wrong, depending on how the network was setup. However, your method was still incorrect. Using your method would give me the wrong answer here at work as well.

Personally, I'd have failed you for that. Not trying to be harsh, just being honest.

[ibanezfoo]

I would think though that if I was wrong, they would see that at least I had a clue as to what tools to call up to use. :\

In the world of IT this is worse than flat out not knowing. If you don't know things fairly thoroughly you might "know just enough to be dangerous".

Not being rude or harsh or anything... but generally these are the kinds of folks that take down networks when they are given too much access and wind up over their heads and yet still under the gun to fix something.

Grab the book "Using TCP/IP". Its great and after you read it a few times you should be pretty solid on basic TCP/IP networking.

You should learn what DNS actually does and how it does it. What a gateway actually is and how it works. Ports. UDP TCP, etc.


Were you applying for a job or something? What kind of position was it? Just curious because occasionally I have to hire someone for our IT department and I would not have hired you without more advanced knowledge than what you've shown here. Not trying to rip on you or anything, just wondering so I (or anyone here) can point you in a better direction to build up your skills so questions like that are peanuts for you in the future.