"net stop dnscache" Not working

Question

The requested pause, continue, or stop is not valid for this service.

More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 2191.

net helpmsg 2191

The requested pause, continue, or stop is not valid for this service.

Real helpful help message, there...

So, what's going on? /flushdns seems to be working. /displaydns shows only a few sites that I'm currently on after. nslookup still showing incorrect IP for a DNS entry. Dig through WSL or any other system shows the correct entry. Pinging the domain from CMD also shows the incorrect IP.

Read try to the "net stop dnscache", but I'm receiving that error, and I can't find any resources on how to resolve it.

Answer 1

Hello @rannday ,

The message from "sc stop dnscache" is perhaps more revealing; it says, on my PC:

[SC] OpenService FAILED 5:

Access is denied.

The command "sc sdshow dnscache" shows:

D:
(A;CI;CCLCSWRPLORC;;;BU)
(A;CI;CCLCSWRPDTLORC;;;BA)
(A;CI;CCLCSWRPDTLORC;;;SY)
(A;;CCLCSWRPLORC;;;IU)
(A;CI;CCLCSWRPLORC;;;NS)
(A;CI;CCLCSWRPLORC;;;LS)
(A;CI;CCLCSWRPDTLORC;;;NO)
(A;CI;CCLCSWDTLOCRRC;;;S-1-5-80-2940520708-3855866260-481812779-327648279-1710889582)
(A;CI;CCLCSWRPLORC;;;AC)
(A;CI;CCLCSWRPLORC;;;S-1-15-3-1)
(A;CI;CCLCSWRPLORC;;;S-1-15-3-2)
(A;CI;CCLCSWRPLORC;;;S-1-15-3-3)
S:
(AU;FA;CCLCSWRPDTLORC;;;WD)

Most other services show this security descriptor:

D:
(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;SY)
(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)
(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;IU)
(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;SU)
S:
(AU;FA;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;WD)

So the ability to stop the service is not granted to anyone. This is an unusual way of refusing to stop - normally the service control function just returns ERROR_CALL_NOT_IMPLEMENTED for controls (such as SERVICE_CONTROL_STOP) that it wants to block.

Gary