DNS problems

[L-monster]

I've just install RedHat 7.3 on a machine at my home. I've got a couple of other windows machines on the same lan as the linux machine. All machines are connected to a Netgear router which shares the cable modem connection out to the internet.

The problem is that I can't ping the linux box, by name, from the windows boxes and also can't ping a windows box, by name, from the linux box. If I ping by ip address, it's all good. The windows boxes can ping each other just fine.

The windows boxes are getting their ip addr through DHCP from the NetGear router. I set up the Linux to have a static ip locally since that seems to be recommended setup with Linux. I just can't get the linux box to use the router as a DNS name server. although it is able to resolve names on the internet ["www.yahoo.com" for example].

Here's what I currently have after trying too many things to count:

/etc/resolv.conf:
nameserver 192.168.0.1
search attbi.com
_____________________________

/etc/sysconfig/network:
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=nolhta
GATEWAY=192.168.0.1
____________________________________

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:
DEVICE='eth0'
BOOTPROTO='none'
ONBOOT='yes'
TYPE='Ethernet'
USERCTL='no'
IPADDR='192.168.0.10'
GATEWAY='192.168.0.1'
NETMASK='255.255.255.0'
NETWORK='192.168.0.0'
BROADCAST='192.168.0.255'
_______________________________


/etc/nsswitch.conf: [has the line]
hosts: files dns
________________________________

the output of ifconfig:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:04:5A:40:F7:A4
inet addr:192.168.0.10 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:560 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:504 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:459057 (448.2 Kb) TX bytes:127037 (124.0 Kb)
Interrupt:10 Base address:0x7c00

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:40 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:40 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:2838 (2.7 Kb) TX bytes:2838 (2.7 Kb)
_____________________________________

[jumpedintothefire]

Sound like the netgear is running some dns setup but has no clue on how to resolve the name for your machine. Did you set the ip as static in the netgear?