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:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2002 11:34 AM To: debian-user@lists.debian.org Subject: Re: Unable to Ping NT boxes * Bodnyk, Bruce W ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [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 -- Currently seeking opportunities in the SF Bay Area Please see http://www.doorstop.net/resume/ -- "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." --Beatrice Hall, The Friends of Voltaire, 1906
