Is there a way to flush the DNS cache from a C# WPF app? (on XP, Vista, Win7)

Question

Is there a way to flush the DNS cache from a C# WPF app? The application would be running on either XP, Vista, or Windows 7.

Answer 1

I searched on the internet and couldnt find away to flush a single dns entry. Working on something for failing over to backup datacenter this is needed for me. I dissembled the DnsFlushResolverCacheEntry_W and came up with the p/invoke sig below. I use the DnsQuery method with the QueryNoWireFlag and NoHostFile flag. If there are any results then I call DnsFlushResolverCacheEntry_W. This might be good info for someone in the future looking to do the same

/// <summary>
        /// Removes all related DNS records for the given hostname from the DNS resolver cache.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="hostName">The host name to flush from the resolver cache.</param>
        /// <returns>Returns 1 if successful, zero if failed.  No other error information is returned.</returns>
        /// <remarks>
        /// DnsFlushResolverCacheEntry_W is an undocumented method.  From dissembler this method has two possible 
        /// return values 0 or 1.  If the argument is null or the _R_ResolverFlushCacheEntry returns something 
        /// other than zero than the return value is zero.  When _R_ResolverFlushCacheEntry returns zero the 
        /// return value is 1.  Based off this and testing of the method it is assumed that 1 is used to indicate success.  
        /// After calling this method querying the DNS resolver cache returns no results.
        /// 
        /// __stdcall DnsFlushResolverCacheEntry_W(x)
        /// ....
        /// 6DC12729 xor     esi, esi                       // Zero esi
        /// 6DC1272B cmp     [ebp+arg_0], esi               // check if the hostname is null
        /// 6DC1272E jz      loc_6DC1D8B8                   // Jump to end, return value is 0.
        /// 6DC12734 mov     [ebp+ms_exc.registration.TryLevel], esi
        /// 6DC12737 push    esi                            // Push 3 args for method, 2nd is hostname, others null
        /// 6DC12738 push    [ebp+arg_0]
        /// 6DC1273B push    esi
        /// 6DC1273C call    _R_ResolverFlushCacheEntry@12  // call this method 
        /// 6DC12741 mov     [ebp+var_1C], eax              // store return value in local
        /// 6DC12744 mov     [ebp+ms_exc.registration.TryLevel], 0FFFFFFFEh
        /// 6DC1274B
        /// 6DC1274B loc_6DC1274B:                           
        /// 6DC1274B cmp     [ebp+var_1C], esi           
        /// 6DC1274E jnz     loc_6DC1D8E7                   // Error?  jump to block that does etw then return 0
        /// 6DC12754 xor     eax, eax                       // Success?  Set eax to zero
        /// 6DC12756 inc     eax                            // result is 0, increment by 1.  success return value is 1
        /// 6DC12757 call    __SEH_epilog4
        /// 6DC1275C retn    4
        /// 
        /// 6DC1D8B8 xor     eax, eax                       // set return value to zero
        /// 6DC1D8BA jmp     loc_6DC12757                   // jump to end
        /// 
        /// 6DC1D8E7 mov     eax, _WPP_GLOBAL_Control
        /// 6DC1D8EC cmp     eax, offset _WPP_GLOBAL_Control
        /// 6DC1D8F1 jz      short loc_6DC1D8B8
        /// 6DC1D8F3 test    byte ptr [eax+1Ch], 40h
        /// 6DC1D8F7 jz      short loc_6DC1D8B8 // This is probably testing some flag that is used to indicate if ETW is enabled
        /// 6DC1D8F9 push    [ebp+var_1C]
        /// 6DC1D8FC push    offset dword_6DC22494
        /// 6DC1D901 push    0Dh
        /// 6DC1D903 push    dword ptr [eax+14h]
        /// 6DC1D906 push    dword ptr [eax+10h]
        /// 6DC1D909 call    _WPP_SF_q@20    ; WPP_SF_q(x,x,x,x,x)      // This method does some ETW tracing
        /// 6DC1D90E jmp     short loc_6DC1D8B8
        /// </remarks>
        [DllImport("dnsapi.dll", EntryPoint = "DnsFlushResolverCacheEntry_W", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
        public static extern int DnsFlushResolverCacheEntry(string hostName);

Answer 2

This may be the poor-man's solution, but you could use System.Diagnostics.Process to launch ipconfig /flushdns.