Can't Ping By Hostname, Only By IP
 

Running SuSE OpenLinux 10.1
Hostname: toolbox
Registered in DNS: Yes
SuSE Firewall: Disabled
Can ping google.com: Yes
Can ping sun.com: Yes
Can ping other internal machines by hostname: No
Can ping other internal machines by IP address: Yes
Other machines can ping toolbox by hostname: Yes
Other machines can ping toolbox by IP address: Yes

Trying to see other network resources from within SuSE OpenLinux 10.1 - I can ping other internal hosts by IP address, not by hostname.

Any suggestions?

Re: Can't ping
 

Add host names in the /etc/hosts file.

???
 

Can you explain the reasoning behind this approach? This seems rather unecessary as other machines on the network do not need such etc/hosts entries and yet they maintain the ability to ping other network devices by hostname.


Thanks,

SoulGrind

Check your DNS settings. Yast2 provides a GUI frontend for this, might wanna try.

Perhaps there is a DNS server they are using in their /etc/resolv.conf file that points to such hosts. Are these all Linux or Windows hosts? If they're all Windows hosts, it's a matter of them running WINS or the like where they can see each other by name without a DNS setup.

Do you have a zonefile loaded for your local hostnames? Is your zonefile formed correctly? Can you nslookup the hostname? If not, your bind (read also DNS server) configuration is jacked. man named.conf. Read the DNS-HOWTO. If you still have problems, post your zonefile and your named.conf.