Re: Name resolution on Debian/Windows network
Jeffrey Barish wrote:
> I have 3 computers on my home network. The Windows machines are
> connected to each other using ICS. I can ping one Windows machine
> from another Windows machine simply by naming the destination:
>
> ping windowsB
>
> from machine windowsA will elicit a response. I can also ping my
> Linux machine from a Windows machine by name:
>
> ping linuxA
>
> from machine windowsA will elicit a response. However, I cannot ping
> one of the Windows machines by name from the Linux machine, only by IP
> number. I get the message 'unknown host windowsA.' I am using DHCP
> to assign IP numbers on the network, so it is important that I be able
> to
> reach machines by name as the IP numbers change. I'm not even sure
> where to start looking to resolve this problem, so any guidance would
> be appreciated.
Thanks to everyone who replied. I've learned from your suggestions.
Several people suggested populating /etc/hosts, but I can't do that
because I'm using DHCP. I figure DHCP is running on the Windows NT
machine (which is the one with the Internet connection) because it's
the only one whose IP address never changes. Samba is installed and
working. I am able to share from any machine to any machine. One post
suggested setting up my own bind. I don't know where to start with
this. There is only a hub in my system, no router or switch.
Here's some new information that I think is significant: When I ping
linuxA from linuxA, I get a response, but the IP number is 127.0.0.1,
not the IP number that has been assigned by the DHCP server. I
understand that it is picking up the number from /etc/hosts. That
seems appropriate because /etc/host.conf contains order hosts,bind,
which tells the name resolver to look first in hosts. If I take hosts
out of the line (leaving only bind), I get the same result because the
resolver is still looking in hosts (perhaps because bind is not
running?).
I also noticed that hostname --fqdn on linuxA returns only linuxA (not
linuxA.domain.com). I put domain.com in resolv.conf, but that entry
has no effect on the output of hostname.
I have a feeling that I am one step from a solution to the problem, but
I'm not sure what these clues mean.
--
Jeffrey Barish
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