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Problem Seeing Computer Names

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7 replies

by rgerardi

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Just receently I have experienced problems seeing computer names accross my network. I can search for, and connect to, other computers using their IP address just fine, but when I try to connect to a computer on my WAN I cannot see them with their name. I also had some users in another location not able to connect to our SQL server using the name, but were able to using the IP. Odd thing about it, others in the same location were able to connect using the name. I even have one computer in the same location as the server and he can not log into it, yet he can ping it. The only thing that I changed was I took out my hubs and put in switches. Any suggestions?

7 replies

by shawv

It sounds like perhaps your DHCP server has lost it's cache. Also, you might check on your host file (and LMhost file if your using Wins). I would take a look at those things first. Good luck!

by mackem

It sounds very much like a DNS problem. If you can ping the ip no's but not the names then i would check that your DNS server is operating properly and the names are resolved with the correct ip addressess.
Hope this helps.
John

by bowieb

Switches isolate traffic on a network. This is what makes them desirable, but it can also cause problems. What protocols are you using? Switches can be configured to block broadcasts in some situations.

Are all of your computers in the same IPsubnet? Windows will not be able to see computer names across subnets.

For a WAN connection, I would recommend installing WINS servers. This will allow Windows to find computers by name without relying on the NetBEUI broadcasts. It also works across subnets.

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