RE: Unable to Ping NT boxes
Do you run DNS at all?
or are your NT boxes using WINS?
Marcin Kurc
CAD Systems Administrator
Cooper-Standard Automotive
-----Original Message-----
From: Vineet Kumar [mailto:debian-user@virtual.doorstop.net]
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2002 11:34 AM
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Subject: Re: Unable to Ping NT boxes
* Bodnyk, Bruce W (BBodnyk@fciconnect.com) [020228 07:36]:
> I'm trying to configure samba on my Linux machine so I can
> access directories on an MT box and am being unsuccessful.
> I'm thinking it has something to do with another problem
> which I have ignored up to now.
>
> After installing Linux I found that I was unable to ping normal
> NT machines using their host name. If I use their IP address
> then the ping works. However I am able to ping Unix machines
> using their host name AND can ping a number of NT servers
> using their host name. However whenever I attempt to ping
> my NT desktop or Windows 2000 laptop by name the ping
> fails.
You should understand the way this works so that you can better
understand why you can ping some but not others by name. When you say
something like ping google.com, your system first tries to convert the
name "google.com" into an IP address, and then it sends a ping to that
IP address. The way it does the name->address conversion may vary, but
most likely it first looks in a file called /etc/hosts as a sort of
"cheat sheet" of name/address pairs. If it's not found there, it asks a
DNS server "Hey, what's 'google.com's address?" To figure out which DNS
server to ask, it looks in /etc/resolv.conf.
So if you can ping some machines by name, what that really means is that
your system can resolve those names into addresses. If you can't ping
others by name (but can by address) the step that it's missing is being
able to convert the name into an address. Given that you're able to
resolve some machines, it sounds like you do have a DNS server listed
that is able to give you some sensible replies, but that it doesn't know
anything about certain machines (i.e. your NT desktop and Win2k laptop).
You have a couple of options (maybe): first, you could add entries for
those machines into /etc/hosts. Or (this one's the maybe) you could add
entries for those machines in your local DNS server, if you're the
administrator for it (or ask your DNS server's admin to add entries for
those machines).
If you're getting a dynamically-assigned (changes every time) address on
those DHCP machines, neither option is really a good one, since the
addresses in either place (/etc/hosts or in the DNS zone file) will
become out of date next time you get a different address. I know at
least win2k (and maybe NT) has something they call something like
"register this machine's address in DNS" or something, which might be
able to help, but you're unlikely to get good help configuring your
windows machines around here =) My suggestion would be to put debian on
'em ;)
good times,
Vineet
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