[SOLVED] Resolving LAN host names

[FooSoft]

Hi guys, I'm running into a bit of a problem with Xubuntu 8.04. I can't seem to be able to resolve the host names for my other machines on the network. I have no problem resolving external hosts (like ubuntuforums.org), or pinging the local machines directly by IP address, but resolving by name doesn't work:

foosoft@tsundere:~$ ping wintermute
ping: unknown host wintermute
foosoft@tsundere:~$ ping wintermute.local
ping: unknown host wintermute.local

Any ideas what could be up? I know it's not a hardware problem because this works when I'm in Windows.

[Iowan]

What's in your /etc/resolv.conf file?

[FooSoft]

Here we go:

### BEGIN INFO
#
# Modified_by: NetworkManager
# Process: /usr/bin/NetworkManager
# Process_id: 5213
#
### END INFO

search hsd1.wa.comcast.net.


nameserver 192.168.0.1

192.168.0.1 being the IP of my router, Comcast being my ISP of course

[Iowan]

The .local sparked a memory - see if this link helps - very first item looks like your problem.

[FooSoft]

That's not it unfortunately, nothing apparent wrong with my hosts file.

[FooSoft]

I found a solution that allows me to ping the Windows comps! I installed the packages samba, smbfs, smbclient, winbind and edited /etc/nsswitch.conf to include "wins" under the "hosts:" line. I can resolve all my LAN comps now

[Iowan]

Glad you found it... I keep forgetting about installing smbfs. I sometimes remember the winbind package, but then forget about editing /etc/nsswitch.conf.
A little knowledge is, indeed, a dangerous thing.