Hi, I have a small network,all my machines get their IPs dynamically in 192.168.0.0 network
When I ping linux machine fron win7 or win2k8, linux responds.
when I try pinging any machine from linux it says "unknown host sierac".

Recently, I created a new linux machine, linux machines can not talk to each other if I dont add their respective ips in the host file, but both of them can be contacted by windows machines through ping or remote desktop.

Thanks for your help

Nothing to do with Networking, moved to Linux - Software

Sounds like you're expecting DNS to magically work in some of this. How is it supposed to know what IP "seirac" relates to? That's not networking, but host / server config.

I think networking was the correct forum because it is a name resolution issue.

Unfortunately the original poster did not tell us about how the Linux machines nor the Windows machines are configured. One scenario that I can imagine this happening is if the Linux machines have Samba Server running and making broadcasts about its availability AND if the Windows machines have network discovery turned on. Then the Windows machines could discover the Linux machines but the Linux machines could not discover the Windows machines.

Yes, Samba Server software would be involved so you could say it is a server issue. However I think it is still primarily a name resolution issue.

Thanks for your responses
All machines get their networking information from the router which is my DHCP. no difference between windows machines and linux
2nd, I have a and Active directory dns. I tied addin a host record but it didnt help.


Also, before establishing my active directory, my machines were able to contact each other without the need to dns as they are on the same network.

To prove this, I have 2 1T network hard drives and they are not part of my AD, I can seem them from all windows machines but not linux. The only exception is that when using smbclient, I can see/mount directories on other devices.

Now, let me ask the question differently, imagine that I have only the 2 linux machines in my network, how can make them to each other without using the host file? Is it possible

I don't know about Active Directory DNS. But it seems that if you want the Linux machines to use Active Directory Services then those machines will have to be added to the Active Directory membership. (Some combination of Samba, Kerberos, and LDAP?)

Without DNS? and without host files containing the names? I don't know of any other means for Linux machines to resolve names to addresses.

I believe that the smbclient is listening for Windows file sharing broadcasts, which is how Windows machines find each other without DNS on a LAN.

Normally if you are using DHCP then the DHCP server will provide the address of the DNS server to the Linux client. The Linux DHCP client will then create a file /etc/resolv.conf that will include the address of the DNS name server.

My simple LAN does not have a DNS server. My router acts as a DHCP server and tells my computers that it is the DNS server. However it is only forwarding DNS requests to my ISP. Therefore computers on my simple LAN cannot resolve names to addresses for each other, only for computers on the Internet.

Even though I have spent many years working in large corporations I never had the occasion to set up a DNS server so it is a bit of a mystery to me. I know that if the DHCP addresses are not permanent (each client could have a different address each time it requests an address) then the DHCP server has to notify the DNS server about the name/address assignment. Otherwise, if the DHCP server always gives a client the same IP address then the DNS server can have a permanent entry for the client.

It looks like someone with more Active Directory expertise is required to help out.

Stress, I can agree with you.
However, as I said, I changed my linux machines to static IPs with Active directory dns IP as primary DNS as well as the DNS that the router provide in the dns config, which forwards as you for myISP.
Still both nachines can not resolve the others names.
when I do nslookup, it dispalys correctly my internal dns when I do
nslookup mydomain.net
and for outside domain it dispalys correctly other dns.

Regards,

Hello together,

I don't as well understand why this isn't a networking question.

Normaly a Linux- (or in general Unix-) computer can register it's name at M$-DNS-server. Unfortunately I've forgotten if/how one has to configure on the Linux/Unix-machines
Take a look here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../bb463170.aspx maybe that helps.

I'm using a router which provides DHCP and DNS services in my network. In my network the Windows-clients register their name in the DNS server but the Linux clients don't. This is very inconventient. Only exception is when I give a (Linux)PC a static IP, I can configure the computer's name manually at the router (one of the Linux-PCs acts as a server with a static IP).

Markus

Servers serve DNS, not networks. Please read the sticky thread in the networking forum. People post in networking and then say 'my server this, my server that.'
M$ AD DNS registration is a horrible thing really. Why would it ever be ok to allow a client to update a dns server about its own IP address? just because things are possible and easy and 'convenient', doesn't mean they are good ideas.

Thanks for pointing me to this! I'll take a closer look at DHCP and DNS with Linux. Since I work in the Windowsworld I don't don't have a view of this services in a Network where there are only Linux servers and clients. I was not aware that there is a big difference between Linux and Windows at that point.

Markus

The difference terms to be RFC's and Microsofts denial of their existence! There are plenty of decent ways to do updates from dhcp servers into dns servers, e.g. tsig, check them out.