Strange Network behaviour II

[CallACD]

Hi again,

I do have a new network problem:
My computers network is these:
C1: Windows XP SP1
C2: Kanotix HDD Install
M1: Knoppix 3.6 HDD install

SMC Router with dhcp enabled.

All computers are configured to retrieve the ip adress via dhcp and all get one.
I can ping from M1 to the rest of the net by ping <ip> but I cannot ping them by name. Of course I can browse the internet, so could you please help me getting to the root of the problem?

All computers are connected via Cat5 cables (no wlan).

Thanks
Michael

[Harry Kuhman]

I can ping from M1 to the rest of the net by ping <ip> but I cannot ping them by name. Of course I can browse the internet, so could you please help me getting to the root of the problem?

I'm not sure this is really much of a problem. To be able to ping or otherwise by name, something has to provide name resolution. Assuming you're not running a full blown name server, the easiest way to do this is with a host file on each system. While Windows will recognize other local Windows machines on a local network, I don't expect it will recognize Linux systems (at least unless you run Samba, and even then I'm not sure). For Windows you need a files called "hosts" in your windows directory. There should be a sample version of this file called "hosts.sam" there; you can just make a copy and call it hosts without an extension and edit it to include your Knoppix systems and you should be able to start pinging them by name. By the way, the hosts file is often used to block access to many advertising/spyware/pop-up sites by adding a list of know problem servers to the hosts file so the names never resolve to their "proper" server.

The same concept holds true for Knoppix, although I'm not certain of exactly where the file is stored and I'm not certain it's called hosts (I think it may be singular), However, there has been discussion of it in other recent threads, I expect you can find that with just a little looking. Also, a google search with a few keywords like "Linux" "name resolution" and "host" will turn up a ton of information, I just tried it. One such link that looks informative is http://burks.brighton.ac.uk/burks/linux/rute/node23.htm

[user unknown]

It is /etc/hosts on linux

[CallACD]

Hi again,

Thanks for all. I have added the computers to the /etc/hosts file and now all works fine.

Ciao
Michael