I have a mixed environment of Windows 2000/XP computers and Linux computers, one machine is a SUSE 9.3/XP SP2 dual boot. I have a small LAN via a Linksys WRT54G router.

The Windows machines can resolve all hostnames on my LAN, whether it be a Linux or another Windows system. The Linux systems cannot. From linux I can browse via SAMBA and see all the shares, but ping returns 'unknown host name', as does telnet.

I do not have a DNS, nor am I using a hosts file. All systems are configured to use DHCP from the router.

Any idea how I can get host name resolution from Linux without the use of a DNS or static IP +hosts?

Thanks.

Neither windows not linux should be able to resolve hostnames without DNS or hosts files. (Well, you could use other exotic systems, but it's not likely).

Are you sure the router is not providing DNS for the windows systems?

Winbind handles resolution via Netbios names. I'm not sure that Gentoo has a separate package for it; it may be part of the Samba ebuild itself. Either way, once you have that installed, make sure the daemon itself is running. Then, change your hosts line in /etc/nsswitch.com to:

hosts: files dns wins

No, you are not required to run a WINS server for this to work. However, running one cannot possibly hurt. Try this out, and tell me if you have any more trouble.

Genious, sheer genious. Name resolution works like a charm.

Thank you for your help on two of my issues now. Spot on for both.