Windows 7 Not able to ping by name but no problem by ip

geo77

New Member
Hello all,
I have a small workgroup that I am able to ping machines by ipaddress, but can't seem to be able to ping by machine name. I have even installed a WINS server and added it to my dhcp configuration.
What is really weird is that if I do a nbtstat -A 192.168.1.xx I get the name of the machine, but when I got and try to ping by the name that was returned, I get the host not found error message.

Thanks for any help in advance.
 
Are all machines members of the same workgroup with no duplications of netbios names.
Have you got the computer browser service running everywhere and is netbios over tcp/ip enabled? (IPv4 properties advanced button, Wins tab, in the properties of the network adapter you're using)
And the TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service in services.msc
 
Hello,
All computers are part of the workgroup, no duplication of netbios names exist.
Netbios over tcp/ip is enabled.
 
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Then my suspicions would fall on some third part software security suite on one or more of the problem machines inhibiting the propagation of netbios data and or the network infrastructure to support netbios communication (ports and protocols).
My suggestion would be to uninstall any and all such software from the network nodes and rely on the native Windows options regarding antivirus, antimalware and firewall bits for now. Even going so far to track down and run the vendor specific proprietary removal tools that most top tier security suites offer through their websites.
 
Hello,
I have unistalled disabled all firewalls/antivirus that I had set up for each machine, still the same symptom. One thing that I found curous, is that when I chose Home network as the typ of network, I can ping that machine at least via ipadress,but if I select the Work option I can't ping it, why is that?

Still in either case, I get nothing back if I ping via name.
 
I don't know if you aware of this but you need to identify the names with the IP addresses in the C:/windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts file on the machine you are trying to ping from. Use Wordpad or simular to edit the file and at the bottom add the machine and IP address ie...;
192.168.1.229 Server1

I hope this helps
 
Hello hoassb,
That is actually what I am doing as a work around at the moment, however it becomes really unpractical, when you have to manage over ten machines..

Thanks for the suggestion though..
 
Do you have a central server? if you do you can have all the machines look to the same place.
edit C:/windows/system32/drivers/etc/lmhosts.sam file. You can read through it and the examples describe how to set it up.
 
I do have a central server, but I was trying to get this to work with a WINS server, (not sure if wins is even a good solution, since it is old technology) but at least it will give me the ability to have a back up WINS server in case of failure.

In any case, I would like to get this workgroup setup properly so I can ping by name.
 
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Retrace your process from the beginning. I would take two of the PCs in the network and set one up as the Computer Browser host and the other as the client. Make sure you have then both on the same subnet, sharing options set to "Work/Home", firewall should be on, netbios settings to default, disable lmhosts for now, comment out the hosts file settings (because you want the client name to be found through netbios not hosts file). Remove the WINS server from the network. Reboot the the machines and test ping by address and name. Test nbtstat by address and name. If it all works, add the other machines. In the end, add the WINS server and modify the lmhosts configuration for your machines and retest. Somewhere along the line you might discover what went wrong if you can reproduce it. Last, you might have an issue with your dhcp server. Is your dhcp server another PCs or working through a router/switch.
 
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