I cant ping Windows/Linux boxes in our network

[salck]

Hi all I am new in linux. i got Slackware 10.2 installed. i never installed any linux dist in a company network ...here is we have a lot of Windows boxes and control them with Active Directory ...i did install slack and did config of the DHCP client so everything its cool i have internet and intranet but when i am trying to ping some windows or linux box over its hostname my slacks tells me that :

root@salck:~# ping anyhostname
ping: unknown host anyhostname
root@slack:~#

any ideas why this happends? thanks in advance

[LinuxBox420]

Add them to your /etc/hosts file.

[salck]

yes i thought about that but the Pcz are more than 10.000 it is impossible to add them all in host file
any other suggestions?

[bigtomrodney]

If you already have a windows environment - surely you have a DNS server? You should be able to use this, instead of trying to modify hosts files.

[salck]

you are right ...i use resolv.conf and i put the ips of the DNS servers there ...but nothings happend ...the same old error ....i am sure that these ips are the DNS ips but ....error again

[Kia_Breizzze]

I too get that.
I can for example ping google by ip but not by name.
I haven't found a solution to this as yet, however, I can access google (or any other site) via a web browser by name so it's not such an issue for me.

[kakariko81280]

Can I get you to check the files /etc/nsswitch.conf and /etc/host.conf. Particuarly host.conf containing a line "mdns on". If it does then change it to "mdns off" and try pinging google again.

If that isn't the case can you post the contents of those files and the resolv.conf file.

Let us know how you get on.

Chris...

[salck]

hi guys when i change ON to OFF in host.conf its works for me ..but you know what its strange
lets say we have 5 pcs - pc1, pc2, pc3, pc4 and pc5
i can ping all except pc2 haha i cant understand that?
also could you please explain me what is Multi On for ? What this thing do, when its on or off?
we have hosts, bind which mean ..first look for hosts then try dns server but this multi on/off i dont know what is for ?

[kakariko81280]

Multicast dns. It's a protocol to allow machines to find each other on the network without a DNS server. It's part of a series of protocols that are meant to allow people to simply attach a computer to a network and have it work without any setup.

Google is your friend here, it's all a bit new to me too.

As for PC2, can you post what you get when you try to ping it.

Let us know how you get on

Chris...