Can't remote by computer name, but can by IP

[Unrealistic]

  BudMan said:

Well as already gone over in this OLD thread the reasons for the OP problem can be multiple things.. It could be a firewall issue, it could be just that netbios is not enabled, etc.

I provided a link to how host name resolution works.

Why don't you start your own thread with DETAILS of exactly what is happening and how your machines are connected, and then we can get it worked out for you.

As you can see in this thread the OP never came back. Either they gave up or felt so stupid after enabling netbios or correctly configuring the software firewalls they were too embarrassed to come back ;)

I posted in this thread because I found it via google when searching for a solution. I believe it is a DNS problem with our server, but I cannot currently look at it. The machines in question are Windows 7 Ultimate 7600.16385 x64 on the same workgroup.

[JMann Veteran]

  Mathachew said:

Embarrassed? Hardly! The problem still does exist and what doesn't make any sense is that the problem occurs on clean install machines that were running XP; at one point the same machine ran both Vista and 7, and in both instances I was able to remote into the computer by its name without a problem. When I went back to XP (the why is a separate reason), the original problem occurred yet again.

So after trying a number of things, I certainly did give up.

Just a few basic suggestions, I doubt they will be of any help. On both computers, do you have File & Print Sharing enabled within Windows Firewall? Like Budman also mentioned, check things like NETBIOS as well. I believe it was mentioned earlier, that a "quick fix" for the issue would be to add an entry to your HOSTS file which would add a direct record in so whenever you UNC to that PC it will automactically be routed to that IP Address.

Don't know if this is along the right lines, but what DNS servers are you using? Your ISPs? I suspect you would need to add a DNS Server address in for your local LAN on both machines, which might then help resolve the host names?

[kazuyette]

Download and run DNS Expert and it should help ya diagnose your problem mate.

[+BudMan MVC]

Sometimes I just want to scream! This is NOT rocket science -- please read the info I provided on how host names are resolved on a windows network.

I highly doubt its a DNS problem -- are you running DNS on your local network?? What search domain are you using if you are? Are the records there for the host in question your trying to resolve?

For windows to use netbios to resolve names on the network via broadcast -- they need to be on the same segment for one. Firewalls can prevent the traffic. Oh and BTW your computer name can not exceed the netbios name limit of 15 characters.

And your node type can not be set to not use broadcast, ie P-node is peer to peer and will not broadcast.

On your vista or windows 7 machine meat of the info you need is given in the ipconfig /all output

C:\>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : quadcore-w7

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : local.lan

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : local.lan

Ethernet adapter Local:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-21-9B-03-AC-A7

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100(Preferred)

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.253

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.4

NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

You can also see if your dns suffix search list.. Now for example on my box if I do a simple ping to host name it fully resolves, since I am using local.lan as my search suffix and I am running a local dns

C:\>ping kidsdell

Pinging kidsdell.local.lan [192.168.1.101] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

See how it added the dns suffix local.lan to the name.

But If I take out the search list by by putting a period on the end of the host name. Or just doing a nbtstat -a computer name you can see that it resolves using netbios

C:\>ping kidsdell.

Pinging kidsdell. [192.168.1.101] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.1.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

C:\>nbtstat -a kidsdell

Local:

Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.100] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

Name Type Status

---------------------------------------------

KIDSDELL <00> UNIQUE Registered

LOCAL <00> GROUP Registered

KIDSDELL <20> UNIQUE Registered

MAC Address = 00-13-20-14-B0-34

Please give us some details to work with - and happy to help you work out your name resolution issue. But keep in mind depending on how you have your firewall setup in vista or w7 can prevent netbios name resolution.. Are you set as a private network or public for starters.

Do you have anything in between these computers that might be doing nat, say a voip device or another router, etc. etc.

If you want dns to resolve your local hosts -- happy to help you set something like that up, but normally on a home network you would just use netbios to resolve hosts.. So this needs to be enabled, and your software firewalls have to allow for it.

[jamend]

Thanks for the info, I think it helped me figure out what I managed to do yesterday. On the remote host (tvpc), I disabled IPv4 while leaving IPv6 enabled. Before reenabling IPv4, my iPhone snagged the IP that tvpc had.

Result:

>ping tvpc

Pinging tvpc.lan [192.168.1.70] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.70: bytes=32 time=190ms TTL=64

>ping tvpc.

Pinging tvpc [fe80::496d:d8b1:7005:b2a9%11] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from fe80::496d:d8b1:7005:b2a9%11: time<1ms

>nslookup 192.168.1.70

...

Name: omg-iphone-3g.lan

>nslookup 192.168.1.69 (tvpc's real IPv4 address)

...

Name: Unknown-02-15-af-22-5f-ce.lan

What does the nbtstat output mean though?

>nbtstat -a tvpc

...

Name Type Status

---------------------------------------------

TVPC <20> UNIQUE Registered

TVPC <00> UNIQUE Registered

WORKGROUP <00> GROUP Registered

WORKGROUP <1E> GROUP Registered

WORKGROUP <1D> UNIQUE Registered

..__MSBROWSE__.<01> GROUP Registered

And more confusingly:

>nbtstat -c

...

Name Type Host Address Life [sec]

------------------------------------------------------------

TVPC <00> UNIQUE 192.168.1.69 527

TVPC <20> UNIQUE 192.168.1.69 55

[+BudMan MVC]

the nbtstat -c is your cache.. the 55 and 527 seconds are like the same as a TTL in dns.. Its how long it will be cached.

the <00> and <20> the suffixes tell you what function has been registered, here this should help

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/163409

The NetBIOS suffix is used by Microsoft Networking software to identify functionality installed on the registered device.

<computername> 00 U Workstation Service

<\\--__MSBROWSE__> 01 G Master Browser

<computername> 20 U File Server Service

<domain> 1E G Browser Service Elections

<domain> 1D U Master Browser

examples of the cache.. As you can see nothing in mine.. I then force a netbios lookup by doing a ping to the hostname, you then see the entry for that machine in my cache, I do the command again a few seconds latter and the seconds are counting down from the default 5 minutes.. You can preload names into your netbios cache with the use of the lmhost file, etc.

C:\>nbtstat -c

Local:

Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.100] Scope Id: []

No names in cache

C:\>ping kidsdell.

Pinging kidsdell. [192.168.1.101] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.1.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.1.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.1.101: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.101:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\>nbtstat -c

Local:

Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.100] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Remote Cache Name Table

Name Type Host Address Life [sec]

------------------------------------------------------------

KIDSDELL <00> UNIQUE 192.168.1.101 597

C:\>nbtstat -c

Local:

Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.100] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Remote Cache Name Table

Name Type Host Address Life [sec]

------------------------------------------------------------

KIDSDELL <00> UNIQUE 192.168.1.101 587

When they say domain, its the same as workgroup.. Which yours is just called Workgroup, as you can see from mine, my workgroup is called LOCAL

On a bit of side note -- are you USING IPv6? If not I would just disable it ;) I can currently see no use for it on a local home network, and just makes your ipconfig output more confusing ;) Unless you have some specific use for it, its not doing anything!