such thing as netbios for linux (redhat)?
 

is there someway to set up something like netbios for linux so that I dont have to enter every host name in my network to be able to reach them? I am hoping for some sort of auto query. Someone please enlighten me.

What exactly do you mean? Samba does something like NetBIOS if I'm not mistaken, but that's for file/printer sharing. You say you have to enter every hostname, are you setting up DNS or something?

netbios question continued
 

what I am looking for is like on a MS network that if I have lets say 2 machines, one named bob and the other named jerry. I am not part of a domain or workgroup (which really doesnt matter) and i go to the cmd console and type ping bob, the computer will find the ip address for bob automatically and there you go, no needed host table entry.