A networking question

[cuso4]

condition is like this:
I am in LAN connection. When i use a win9x machine to ping another win9x using its name (eg :ping PC1), it will reply. Both of them are set to [B]obtain IP automatically[B].
As i use linux to ping, it just show unknow host message. I got my dns, gateway, broadcast configured correctly(able to connect to internet) but still unable to ping the windows pc with their name. I even tried using dhcpcd but still same. Anyone know how to ping a windows PC using their name?

[sfam]

Originally posted by cuso4:
condition is like this:
I am in LAN connection. When i use a win9x machine to ping another win9x using its name (eg :ping PC1), it will reply. Both of them are set to [B]obtain IP automatically[B].
As i use linux to ping, it just show unknow host message. I got my dns, gateway, broadcast configured correctly(able to connect to internet) but still unable to ping the windows pc with their name. I even tried using dhcpcd but still same. Anyone know how to ping a windows PC using their name?

What you're describing is a DNS problem. Is the DHCP server that is assigning the Windows machines their IP addresses assigning dynamic or reserved, static IPs to them?

If it's assigning dynamic addresses to them then you need to use a DNS server that supports dynamic DNS updates. I'm told the newest version of BIND supports this, but I know nothing about how to implement it.

If the DHCP server is assigning the same address to each machine from a reserved pool (pretty pointless to me, but some people do it) then just find out what address each machine has and add them to your /etc/hosts file and then you will be able to connect to them by name.

[bdg1983]

Try adding the Windows ip and hostname to /etc/hosts on Linux. Works the same as the Windows hosts file.

[cuso4]

I am inside a subnet of 255.255.0.0 ,
if need to add in /etc/hosts, it'd be thousands of ip need to be added. I think i'll try the latest bind.
thanks for the info guys.