Simple DNS question...

I"m having problems with my linux box resolving hostnames correctly. I go to ping the computer names on my LAN, and it can't find the computer. Nor can my windows computers find the linux box via hostname.

First of all I check the resolv.conf and it all checks out. What other file would it be?

I run LinNeighborhood and it pulls the names fine, I'm guessing because it grabs them through SMB.

Has this something to do with WINS? Though WINS isnt enabled anywhere.

Any help or links would be appreciated.

thanks

you can manually add the machines to your hosts file

/etc/hosts

then you will be able to ping them by host name

in 2k/xp, its in c:\%systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
in 9x its c:\%systemroot%\hosts

The main question is: how are names resolved on your LAN? If you have a DNS-based network (Windows AD?) you will need to have a host record for the Linux machine in DNS for the system to communicate on the network in any meaninful way.

Are the DNS servers correctly entered in your Linux system's network configuration? If not, your Linux machine cannot get name or host resolution in your LAN.

Does your LAN use IPSec? Are the clients XP? Do the client end-point firewalls block ICMP traffic?

Lots of questions, but that may help point you in the direction of resolving the issues.

make sure your pointing towards an internal dns server (you really weren't spacific about that). the linux box can resolve internet urls from it and add an 'A' type record for the box to your dns server. if its a home lan do like phish said. :]