Computer Names on the Network

**guywithcable** · March 7th, 2009

Hi everyone. I'm trying to figure out why I can't get to my server using its host name.

The ones that are working are running 8.10. I can get to them by using charlotte-desktop.local and hunter-desktop.local. Such as:

Code:

ssh charlotte@charlotte-desktop.local

But I can't get to my server at hunter-server.local. That one is running 8.04 Server. It was hunter-server.family (which I also couldn't get to), but I changed /etc/hosts to:

Code:

127.0.0.1       localhost
192.168.0.10    hunter-server

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1     ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

so it would be hunter-server.local. I also can't get to my other computers from it. I get this:

Code:

hunter@hunter-server:~$ ssh hunter@hunter-desktop.local
ssh: hunter-desktop.local: Name or service not known

Any ideas?

**Iowan** · March 8th, 2009

Hve you tried just:

Code:

ssh hunter@hunter-desktop

**guywithcable** · March 8th, 2009

Originally Posted by Iowan

Hve you tried just:

Code:

ssh hunter@hunter-desktop

I just tried it and got the same result.

Code:

hunter@hunter-server:~$ ssh hunter@hunter-desktop
ssh: hunter-desktop: Name or service not known

**Iowan** · March 8th, 2009

I presume you can ping it by IP address?

**guywithcable** · March 8th, 2009

Originally Posted by Iowan

I presume you can ping it by IP address?

Yeah. I can SSH to it by IP address, just not host names. I tried changing the /etc/hosts file again. I'll let you know if that works.

**Teknor** · March 8th, 2009

But you really shouldn't have to edit the hosts file.

Why is it that current Linux distros tend to fail simple local network IP name resolution? That *other* OS (Windoz) does it well and simple local networks will name resolve easily.

I don't know the answer either (short of editing the hosts file) but in a DHCP network (even simple "at home" networks) the device that serves out the dynamic IP numbers (usually the router) also by default should be doing at least rudimentary name resolution.

I know, this doesn't help. It's one of my pet peeves with the recent Linux distros.