Can someone tell me a command to determine the hostname of an IP on the network?

brow27 · 05-20-2004, 12:48 PM

Hello.

I am running on an NIS network with an NIS master and NIS slave (running slackware), 2 servers running RH9.0, and some RH9.0 clients. There are also Windows machines running on the network, the gateway system being a Windows server.

One of our systems is having an IP conflict. A machine is set to use IP 192.168.2.199. However, it is unable to grab this IP address as the IP exists somewhere else on the network. I am unable to find the physical computer that is taking this IP address.

For some reason I am unable to SSH, rlogin, or telnet into 192.168.2.199, but it pings just fine. A windows IP scanner gives a hostname for this system that cannot be pinged or otherwise found either from a Windows computer on the network, or a Linux computer on the network.

Another strange thing about the hostname. We have a file naming convention that consists of four letters, then the letter A, and the number of the system, ie isukA001, isukA026, isukA028, etc, etc. (not the real names of course) In Linux, the hostnames are displayed as I just typed. However, when using the Windows IP scanner, the hostnames are shown there as isuko001, isuko026, and isuko028. These systems all have static IP addresses defined in the hosts file on the NIS system. I have no idea what would cause this. Most of the Linux systems don't even display a hostname when scanned with the Windows IP scanner.

Now, my personal system, 192.168.2.16, has the hostname of isukA001, however the windows ip scanner shows the 192.168.2.199 system having a hostname of isuko001.

I'm really not sure what I can do now. I have root access to the Linux network, but don't know how to locate the system taking IP 192.168.2.199, or how to find out it's hostname.

I've tried using the commands host and dig, but I think I must be using the wrong arguments or syntax because I can't get the hostnames that way. Can anyone help?

rose_bud4201 · 05-20-2004, 01:53 PM

Have you tried running nmap on your network?

bluie · 05-20-2004, 02:04 PM

Hi brow27!

Quote:

I've tried using the commands host and dig, but I think I must be using the wrong arguments or syntax because I can't get the hostnames that way. Can anyone help?

Maybe my naive efforts help some.
I tried the host-command and it worked.

Code:

~ $ host www.linuxquestions.org
www.linuxquestions.org. has address 64.179.4.149
~ $ host 64.179.4.149
149.4.179.64.in-addr.arpa. domain name pointer web1.linuxquestions.org.

Unfortunately the try with your address was disappointing.

Code:

~ $ host 192.168.2.199
Host 199.2.168.192.in-addr.arpa. not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

Bye, bluie

zaichik · 05-20-2004, 02:44 PM

Well, the IP addresses 192.168.x.x are a private range, they will not route over the Internet.

Try using nslookup, if they have reverse DNS set up that will give you the host name.

nukkel · 05-20-2004, 03:28 PM

If you can't find the physical machine but you can ping it well ping it and "follow" the blinking lights on your switches, ... or see which computer has a "blinking" network card if you can reach the backs of the machines

This may sound stupid but trust me it can help