ping IP vs. ping Hostname

Cobra · 2006-05-15 19:46:13

Hello, I'm having a problem that's quite easy I think.

ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx gives a result but
ping hostname doesn't.

Does that have anything to do with DNS? Or netbios? I'm having this in /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 192.168.0.1

That's the ip address of my hardware router. The client computers are using DHCP to get their ip addresses. I would like to communicate without looking the ip addresses up in the router manually...

cactus · 2006-05-15 19:56:34

ping hostname
that uses dns, or lm-names.
it first looks up the ip for hostname, then does the ping. be it dns or netbios that finds the name (os specific and name specific too).

ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
that just pings the ip.

the question is..are you trying to get public sites?
ping www.google.com

or are you trying to ping local machines?

Cobra · 2006-05-15 20:06:01

I'm trying to ping machines from the local network. Websites just work. (resolved via the DNS servers of the router)

cactus · 2006-05-15 20:09:40

for local machine names.. you either need to have local fqdn's..
like mymachine.localdomain.local
or something like that..and you can append a default search domain to all non-fqdn queries...

or you need windows short names..with netbios/lmhosts

for short names, you probably want samba. You might consider setting up a WINS server. That makes it a bit easier..

Cobra · 2006-05-15 20:19:32

cactus wrote:

for local machine names.. you either need to have local fqdn's..
like mymachine.localdomain.local
or something like that..and you can append a default search domain to all non-fqdn queries...
or you need windows short names..with netbios/lmhosts
for short names, you probably want samba. You might consider setting up a WINS server. That makes it a bit easier..

Is the "mymachine.localdomain.local" entry the one that you have to put in /etc/hosts? I think that needs static ip's... or am I wrong there? Not sure...

fk · 2006-05-15 20:41:59

The local router only forward the DNS Server to the DNS server from your ISP.

When you will ping hostnames, you must add static Ip's with Hostnames to your /etc/hosts, for all local PC's you will ping with hostnames.

Or you set up a local DNS server, but I think it is not that what you want

But why is it so bad to ping IP's

Cobra · 2006-05-15 20:58:36

DHCP is the reason it is so bad... the clients could be using a different IP address each day. I think it's a lot easier to just do this:

*ping computerA

instead of

*surfing to router config website
*clicking the dhcp link
*searching computerA with its IP address
*pinging found IP address

fk · 2006-05-15 21:14:36

How many PC's have you in the Local network?

Why you dont make static IP's?

Cobra · 2006-05-15 21:25:16

I actually thought of that. That was the way I used to do it before, but I wanted to switch to DHCP because it's just easy... I mean, okay, it's not a lot of work to configure static addresses, but hey, DHCP just works fine. (altough I only have 4 computers in the network ) - I know, it sounds silly...

I just can't imagine that huge companies have to search the ip-addresses of their computers before they can access them.

cactus · 2006-05-15 21:50:15

they dont.
they use dhcp to assign a hostname, then append it to local dns suffixes, then look them up that way.
dhcp working hand in hand with dns.

dnsmasq can do it

likely your $5 "router" can't is all.

as for short names. many windows centric companies either 1) use dns like above. 2) have a wins server. 3) have active directory (which is basically dns and wins rolled into a big ball of ****). 4) don't ping by short names. 5) pay someone like me to fix their network so they can.

muahahhahahaa

Cobra · 2006-05-16 14:32:22

Okay I can live with that. Thanks for your explanation. I think I'll just stick with static IP's then.

Lone_Wolf · 2006-05-16 20:29:19

Most dhcp servers have the option to use reservations.

You tell the dhcp server that a certain mac-address (networkcard id) always gets the same ip.

This way static ip-address combine nicely with dhcp.

Check the documentation for your router to find out how to set it up.

Arch Linux

#1 2006-05-15 19:46:13

ping IP vs. ping Hostname

#2 2006-05-15 19:56:34

Re: ping IP vs. ping Hostname

#3 2006-05-15 20:06:01

Re: ping IP vs. ping Hostname

#4 2006-05-15 20:09:40

Re: ping IP vs. ping Hostname

#5 2006-05-15 20:19:32

Re: ping IP vs. ping Hostname

#6 2006-05-15 20:41:59

Re: ping IP vs. ping Hostname

#7 2006-05-15 20:58:36

Re: ping IP vs. ping Hostname

#8 2006-05-15 21:14:36

Re: ping IP vs. ping Hostname

#9 2006-05-15 21:25:16

Re: ping IP vs. ping Hostname

#10 2006-05-15 21:50:15

Re: ping IP vs. ping Hostname

#11 2006-05-16 14:32:22

Re: ping IP vs. ping Hostname

#12 2006-05-16 20:29:19

Re: ping IP vs. ping Hostname

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