ping -a to FQDN

O.K.,

Goto Start, Settings, Control Panel, then "Network". AT the Identification TAB, take note of the Name that you have assigned to your server. NEXT, goto "Protocols", "TCT/IP", then click on "Properties". There, click on "DNS". At "Host name", enter the name that you have assigned to your computer in the Identification TAB.

EXAMPLE: "MailServer". This would then give a FQDN of "MailServer.MyCompany.com"

Hope this helps,
Cheers
George

It is not a stupid question. Concepts like ping, netBIOS, WINS, DCHP, hostnames, DNS, etc. can get confusing.

The PING command is a TCP/IP command, and runs indepedent of WINS or DNS. When you use the ping -a command, it will resolve an IP address to a NetBIOS host name (not to be confused with a DNS host). The hostname is the NetBIOS computername.

When you ping computername.yourcompany.com, you are not pinging a computer. The ping utility knows in this instance to query a DNS server. When you ping -a an IP address of 192.168.12.2 directly, it will not respond with a FQDN because it is not querying a DNS server. You are pinging an actual computer which will respond with its hostname.

WINS resolves IP to a NetBIOS name. DNS resolves IP to the FDQN. If you need to resolve a FDQN to a NetBIOS name, there are three ways to do this. First is to use a HOSTS file, and specify both the NetBIOS name and DNS name. For example, the line in your HOST file would look like this:
192.168.12.2 computername computername.yourdomain.com

The second way is to manually input the NetBIOS name into the DNS server.

The third way is to tell your DNS server to use the WINS server. You do this by enabling WINS lookup on the DNS server. WINS Lookup can be enabled for a zone through the DNS Manager instead of requiring manual entry of the WINS record. This is accomplished by right-clicking the zone and clicking properties. Then click the WINS Lookup tab. Check the Use WINS Resolution checkbox and fill in the IP address of the WINS Server that you wish to use and click Add. Multiple WINS server addresses can be entered.

Hope that helps.

Do you have both forward and reverse lookup zones set up in your DNS?

If you ping an IP address, then you are going directly to the computer with that IP address to receive an answer (or not).

If you ping -a IPaddress, first the DNS Forward lookup zone is searched to find the hostname assigned that IP address, then you are passed to the computer with that IP address to receive an answer (or not).

If you ping a hostname, the DNS Reverse lookup zone is searched (if LMHOSTS lookup is enabled, the LMHOSTS file is searched first) to determine the assigned IP address, then you are passed to the computer with that IP address to receive an answer (or not).

The problem with LMHOSTS files is that they must reside on each computer. When changes occur in your DNS structure, every LMHOSTS file must be updated. When DNS is properly implemented, their is no need for LMHOSTS files.

NETBIOS names and DNS host names are USUALLY the same.

A DNS Reverse lookup zone consists only of PTR (Pointer) records (other than SOA and NS records). These Pointer records serve only to map hostnames to IP addresses.

As long as a ping originates from within the same zone in which exists, and as long as either a DNS Reverse lookup zone or LMHOSTS files with the required records exist, you will be able to resolve "COMPUTERNAME" to "COMPUTERNAME.mycompany.com".

Hope this solves your problem.

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