ping hostname on mixed windows/fedora environment

[Harold Hallikainen]

>
> On Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 11:48 AM, Bret Stern <
> bret_stern at machinemanagement.com> wrote:
>
>> I have a single router issuing ip addresses (dhcp) to a variety of
>> Windows/XP/Server and Fedora machines.
>>
>> Since all my Windows/Fedora machines are issued ip numbers from the
>> router, I thought I would be able to ping by hostname to any one of the
>> machines.
>>
>> My windows machines seem to ping by hostname more often than not. The
>> Fedora machines (Fedora 12 ftp server, Fedora 13 workstation) do not,
>> because I've never taken the time to figure it out.
>>
>> Although I don't NEED to ping by hostname accross my Windows/Fedora
>> workstations, I would like to try.
>>
>> Any expertise on how to do this...or a good article I can read.
>>
>> As always, regards,
>>
>> Bret Stern
>>

> simple answer - to ping by hostname those boxes should be using a static
> ip
> address and each box needs to have the hosts file configured. What you are
> seeing
> is most likely due to the fact that even using dhcp those boxes are
> receiving the
> same ip address. My own habit is to use static ip addresses on a lan with
> five or
> less devices.

I think the issue may be that Windows has a netbios name service. When a
Windows machine does not find the hostname in lmhosts, it sends a netbios
name query as a UDP broadcast. The device with the requested name responds
with a UDP packet to the requesting machine's IP address with the IP
address of the device with that name.

I don't think Fedora supports the netbios name service.

Harold


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