Name resolution issue on Windows 2000 pro

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dan H
  • Start date Start date
D

Dan H

We have a client with 4 computers, 3 of those computers are Windows 2000
professional, one computer is a Windows XP professional which if you will
acts as a "server", ie. it has a couple of shars that the 2000 professional
computers need to connect to.

I know that this is a name resolution issue but I can't figure out what is
going on.

All of the computers are set to "Obtain IP address automatically, Obtain DNS
servers automatically".
They have a Linksys router which acts as the DHCP server. Pretty typical
stuff, Linksys router has a scope whatever the defaults are( 192.168.1.x to
192.168.1.xx). Router has default IP address (192.168.1.1).
All of the computers are able to access the internet with no problem.
The Windows XP computer is named CompXP. Shares are set up properly.
IPCONFIG /ALL looks ok on all of the machines.
When however in windows explorer I type in \\CompXP from the windows 2000 an
arror message pops up saying unable to find "compxp". I can ping the xp
machine and the xp machine can ping all 2000 computers.
So I assign compxp manual IP address 192.168.1.55 which is outside the
scope.
From windows 2000 computer I type in \\192.168.1.55 and lo and behold I am
able to see and access the shares.
Curiously enough if from the Windowsxp computer I type in compxp in windows
explorer I am indeed able to access the folders this way.
Hmmmmm so I go into hosts file and edit it to point 192.168.1.55 to compxp.
I then go into windows explorer and type in \\compxp and lo and behold i am
able to access the shares.
So there appears to be a naming resolution issue. Keep in mind that the
router was set back to defaults and pretty much the only changed was the
password.

If anyone has any ideas on where i can go from here to find out what is
going on I would appreciate. I'd rather not use hosts file.

Thanks.
 
No. I even checked to make sure there wasn't a third party AV or Firewall
that we were not aware of.

I am completely stumped. Never saw anything like this.
 
What does the Net View command return?

John

Dan said:
No. I even checked to make sure there wasn't a third party AV or Firewall
that we were not aware of.

I am completely stumped. Never saw anything like this.
Click to expand...
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Net view shourld be ok because of the
edited hosts file.
Big problem of this is that it is at a customers and we might have some
issus doing to much experimenting (i.e. taking the entries out of hosts
file). It is working so they don't care. It bothers me though because
something is obviously not right and I want to know what.

Thanks.
 
Another thing to check is see if the Browser service is running and to
take a look in the Event Log to see if any errors are recorded. This
could be a Master Browser problem. If you cannot do any test or
troubleshooting I think that your workaround is perfectly acceptable.

John
 
Nothing out of the ordinary as far as Browser service or event errors.

Thanks for you suggestions. I mean we can test some things out but just
can't cause too much down time.

That (using hosts file) being acceptable is the general concurrence here but
as a tech it bothers me. Also I hope some tech isn't paged in on a weekend
with a Win 2000 loaner trying to figure out how why the thing won't browse
the network.
I mean I told the tech that did it to take notes but you know how that goes
sometimes.
 
You're welcome. Maybe somebody else has better ideas. I agree with
you, re: the hosts file, not many would think of looking at that when
called upon to troubleshoot NetBios problems.

John
 
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