suprfli Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 From my internal network on my Windows machine I can't connect to my Mac via host name with VNC. I did some digging and it appears to be a Mac issue with reverse DNS and how the Mac broadcasts it's host name. In my case, the machine name is "smac." For reference, I set this up in the Mac Network settings. It has an internal address that gets assigned by DHCP(192.168.0.XXX). I can connect to it with VNC if I type in the IP such as 192.168.0.106 but since the address sometimes changes I'd prefer to connect to it by machine name. Sure, I can give it a static internal IP but then when I travel I have to remember to remove that internal static address and then add the internal address again when I get home. An additional annoyance is that all of the Windows machines typically keep their internal IP for a long time(longer TTL?). It seems that relatievely often when I wake my Mac from sleep that it pulls a new internal IP from the DHCP server so I often have to check it before being able to connect. From all of my Windows machines I can connect to my other Windows machines via their machine name so I know this is a Mac issue. How can I a)get Windows to recognize the machine name so I can connect to it by hostname rather than IP or b)tell the mac to extend the DHCP lease time? Thanks for any help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Decryptor Veteran Posted December 15, 2006 Veteran Share Posted December 15, 2006 Enable windows sharing, that starts samba and all that Window's jazz (also, try connecting to machinename.local, e.g. smac.local) and the lease time is set by the DHCP server, mine makes the systems renew the lease every 24 hours (but i have static hosts setup on the server) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suprfli Posted December 15, 2006 Author Share Posted December 15, 2006 decryptor: You rock!! I made the change, enabled the account w/the password in the Mac and then typed "smac" into VNC and BOOM! It worked! Ugh. That was driving me NUTS. I didn't even look to notice the Windows Sharing option and didn't know that would enable the machine to be seen with a hostname. Now I can also connect to it via my "Network Neighborhood." I typed "\\smac\MyUserName" and I can connect to the file system as well. Awesome! Now I can easily transfer files over to it. Great!! Thanks again! :woot: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Live Veteran Posted December 15, 2006 Veteran Share Posted December 15, 2006 For the Windows machines keeping their IPs - that's expected if they don't leave the network. When a DHCP lease is up, the router is expected to give the same IP address if it hasn't already been issued somewhere else. It's possible the Mac isn't doing the renew negotiations properly if its IP address changes randomly. Enabling Windows Sharing might help you, if you haven't done that already. The Mac OS does have some weird networking issues... Not a lot of experience with the latest updates but it used to always screw with NetBIOS resolution. I've seen lone Macs on Windows/Unix networks call master browser elections over and over until the Mac wins - and then it proceeds to do a shoddy job of it. At least they've moved on from AppleTalk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Decryptor Veteran Posted December 15, 2006 Veteran Share Posted December 15, 2006 No problem, it would be much easier if Windows used mDNS by default :p And i agree with Brandon, at least it's not AppleTalk (even though that's an option) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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