Guest Jeff Posted August 26, 2007 Posted August 26, 2007 Hey I have 2 computers (pcA and pcB) in my network at home. pcA has winXP sp2 pcB has Windows Server 2003 Enterprise (180-days evaluation) These computers can ping each other using their IP addresses, but they cannot ping using computer names... I'm currently about to set up the LMHOSTS file on pcA... do I need to create a LMHOST file on pcB also ?? And lets say a large network with thousands of computers, maybe in several countries, would LMHOSTS still be used in every computer or would it be done in a different way (i doubt it would, because it would be hard to maintain) ?? I ask because I want to learn Jeff
Guest John Wunderlich Posted August 27, 2007 Posted August 27, 2007 Re: ping <computername> question "Jeff" <it_consultant1@hotmail.com.NOSPAM> wrote in news:#16QlF$5HHA.5212@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl: g> Hey > > I have 2 computers (pcA and pcB) in my network at home. > > pcA has winXP sp2 > pcB has Windows Server 2003 Enterprise (180-days evaluation) > > These computers can ping each other using their IP addresses, but > they cannot ping using computer names... That's because you're confusing two different protocols. "Ping" uses raw TCP/IP whereas your "computer names" probably refers to a NetBT computer name. NetBT protocol usually falls back onto a TCP/IP DNS to resolve names, but TCP/IP does not fall back onto the NetBT for name resolutions. > > I'm currently about to set up the LMHOSTS file on pcA... do I need > to create a LMHOST file on pcB also ?? Creating a LMHOSTS file on computer "a" will allow it to find the IP addresses that correspond to computer names of other computers on other subnets. This is needed only if other computers reside on a different subnet. If computer "b" needs this functionality, then it too will need a LMHOSTS file. Computers on same subnet will normally find themselves via broadcasts so that LMHOSTS is not necessary in this case. > And lets say a large network with thousands of computers, maybe in > several countries, would LMHOSTS still be used in every computer > or would it be done in a different way (i doubt it would, because > it would be hard to maintain) ?? Usually in this case, a WINS (Windows Internet Name Service) is employed. Each machine would be configured with the IP address of the WINS server. Yet another way is to employ Dynamic DNS. See: "WINS Overview" <http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/b4d659f0-becb-4965-848a-5db94df7698f1033.mspx?mfr=true> HTH, John
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