I just installed Fedora III on a dual boot Windows 2000 machine. I have a simple network with a workgroup name and 3 or 4 other computers. (The other computers are Win2k.) I have not been able to get my Linux box recognized by its computer name (or hostname). It seems to know what it's hostname is, since it states it in the beginning at the login prompt. But, if I search the network on a Windows machine, the machine does not show up. I set up Samba using the hostname, and then that share does show up on a Windows 2k machine when I search my workgroup. But, if I issue a ping command for that name, the machine cannot be found. Similarly, if I try to telnet to that name, or try to set up an x-windows session with the linux machine from a win2k machine, it does not work. (Actually, I can't even set up an x-windows session or telnet in even if I use the IP address, which is 192.168.0.2, at the moment. Also, on the linux machine, I cannot see any of the win2k machines on my network or workgroup.

I am able to surf the net from the linux machine, and I can ping from win2k machines if I type in the ip address, so I know the networking is basically working. I am using a DI-614+ connected to a cable modem for my DHCP. I have that ip address listed for my DHCP server. (It is 192.168.0.1)

Does anyone know what settings I need to change? my etc/hosts file contains 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

I tried changing that to 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain Chinook

where Chinook is the name of the computer (hostname). I also get a message that the ip address of Chinook could not be found, so gnome will not work correctly when I log onto the computer.

Thanks,
Ed

Do you have any firewalls in place?
good luck.

samba is a bitch. i still haven't got it figured out. with some of the distro's i have installed, samba works like a champ - without any additional config. and then sometimes i have to fight and fight and fight with other installs. you think you got the config nailed, just to have it not work. samba is the name of a lady, and she is a bitch!

hehe...

If you try to ping a hostname, but there's no DNS or hosts file entry for that name, it's going to not be able to associate it with a numeric IP address. It sounds like everything is working, but you don't have the names of your Windows hosts defined in your Linux /etc/hosts and the Linux host isn't defines in your Windows host file.

In theory this should not affect Samba. Maybe you can try to connect to one of your Windows machines with smbclient and see what the error message is.

I do not have the Windows machines defined in /etc/hosts because I use DHCP. My understanding was that in /etc/hosts you need to list the machine name as well as the ip address. Since my Dlink router acts as a DHCP, I don't see how I could assign ip address slots in /etc/hosts because I never know, ahead of time, what they will be. There must be something else that is happening.

Have you tried adding your pc's IP and stuff to your etc/hosts file
ie:
127.0.0.1 hostname localhost.localdomain localhost
145.123.123.123 hostname hostname.domain.com


and maybe also your

/etc/sysconfig/network file

must have

NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=hostname.domainname.com
NISDOMAIN= ... only if part of one
GATEWAY=123.123.123.254