Cannot ping another PC by NetBios Name on LAN,help!

[zick79]

hI

I have a 2 PCs behind firewall linksys router, the problem I have is that I cannot ping my win PC from Linux Mandrake 9.1 PC, It used to work no problem, but lately it started accting strange, I cannot ping the name of Mswin2000 box:

http://Wwwserver,

I know the IP and I CAN ping the IP but I can not ping by it Netbios name. It worked fine when I entered NAME and IP in host file but i didn't have to do it before and i worked corectly. Shouldn't it use Broadcast as the ultimited name resolution alternative? I am a newbie to Linux so you help will be very appreciate.


this is what I get from ifconfig command:

'eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:C0:4F:13:94:E2
inet addr:192.168.1.100 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:24882 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:12289 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:7948400 (7.5 Mb) TX bytes:1117389 (1.0 Mb)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xdc00

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:2969 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2969 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:176168 (172.0 Kb) TX bytes:176168 (172.0 Kb)




Thanks and I'll watch the thread for you feedback.

Thanks to you all

 

[lullysing]

If memory serves, pinging a netbios name is not a valid target. You can ping something you have put into you hosts file, because in there you have the host's IP address. But if the IP has changed, that may be the reason it's not working anymore.

____________________
Ex: You put in your hosts file the name "fooswerver" with ip 192.168.1.12.

when you do "ping fooswerver" , your linux box actually does "ping 192.168.1.12". Now say you change the IP of the fooswerver to 192.168.1.15.

Doing "ping fooswerver" is not gonna work.
Doing "ping 192.168.1.15"is gonna work.

 

[zick79]

Yea I know.

But how come i didn't have to insert anything in host file before and it worked? hea hea? I should broadcast the whole LAN for that Name. Any new advice?
I use Linux Mandrik and I can ping Internet ex.

http://www.yahoo.com

but not NetBios name on my LAN can only ping by IP.

Thx

 

[northgate2003]

Thats because

http://www.yahoo.com

is registered with a DNS that you computer uses to resolve names with IP addresses. If it cannot find one in by using its own known DNS's it will then look in the hosts file.

Could it be thought that you are using a samba server on the linux box and it is resolving it for you? Maybe you have a share on it.

A good fix is to load a local DNS/DHCP combination on your linux box but as you only use 2 computers then this is a bit of overkill

 

[ady2k]

You configure samba and activate WINS server on Linux.
WINS server will resolve your computer name.
And you will not have a problem to ping computer name.
Good Luck....