NetBios Name resolving does not work

[deadeyes]

Hi all,

I just got my first macbook.

All seems to be working great... except:

When I try to browse to a server in my network with the IP everything works fine. When I use the hostname it cant resolve the name so it fails.
this is very annoying because a shared printer by cups uses its netbios address while this cant resolve.

There is NOTHING wrong with the other systems... they all worked fine.

Does anyone know what I need to change? Or how I can track this down?

[carlitostsu]

Originally Posted by deadeyes

Hi all,

I just got my first macbook.

All seems to be working great... except:

When I try to browse to a server in my network with the IP everything works fine. When I use the hostname it cant resolve the name so it fails.
this is very annoying because a shared printer by cups uses its netbios address while this cant resolve.

There is NOTHING wrong with the other systems... they all worked fine.

Does anyone know what I need to change? Or how I can track this down?

deadeyes,
Were you able to fix this problem? I'm having a very similar problem.
Please let me know if you were able to.

If not here's a workaround which unfortunately the user in my organization does not want to do.

A workaround is the following:
In Terminal type:
sudo open /etc/hosts
edit the hosts file by typing in the ip address and the name you want to tie it to.

I tried to get the user who is having this problem in our network to do it, but he doesn't want to do it (another user was kind enough to bring their own personal MAC to work so that I cant test this out and it resolved the IP address to the NetBIOS name).

[carlitostsu]

Also,
A shareware program called hostal can modify your host file if you do not want to do it in Terminal.

[deadeyes]

Originally Posted by carlitostsu

deadeyes,
Were you able to fix this problem? I'm having a very similar problem.
Please let me know if you were able to.

If not here's a workaround which unfortunately the user in my organization does not want to do.

A workaround is the following:
In Terminal type:
sudo open /etc/hosts
edit the hosts file by typing in the ip address and the name you want to tie it to.

I tried to get the user who is having this problem in our network to do it, but he doesn't want to do it (another user was kind enough to bring their own personal MAC to work so that I cant test this out and it resolved the IP address to the NetBIOS name).

Are you sure it resolves the netbios name to the correct IP through netbios?
Or did it resolve through /etc/hosts?
As far as I know now: the lookup through netbios(smb) works with the nmbd daemon. This is part of samba.
With smblookup hostname you can then check if the ip resolves correct.
THen, your OS (mac os x in your case) should be able to resolve names through nmbd. This can be configured in /etc/host.conf
I dont know if nmbd is the correct configuration directive.
Also, it could be that Mac OS X does not support nmbd as lookup method (look in the man page of /etc/host.conf).

I hope you can fix it!

[carlitostsu]

It resolved it through the /etc/hosts files only :S

I found this article about samba/group policy object:
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com...1-6127492.html

I'm the network technician, at best :P, I will talk to my boss who's the IT director here. But I think we're on the right track.
Thanks for replying!
--------------------------
Did configuring your hosts file help you find the printer?

[deadeyes]

Originally Posted by carlitostsu

deadeyes,
Were you able to fix this problem? I'm having a very similar problem.
Please let me know if you were able to.

If not here's a workaround which unfortunately the user in my organization does not want to do.

A workaround is the following:
In Terminal type:
sudo open /etc/hosts
edit the hosts file by typing in the ip address and the name you want to tie it to.

I tried to get the user who is having this problem in our network to do it, but he doesn't want to do it (another user was kind enough to bring their own personal MAC to work so that I cant test this out and it resolved the IP address to the NetBIOS name).

Originally Posted by carlitostsu

It resolved it through the /etc/hosts files only :S

I found this article about samba/group policy object:
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com...1-6127492.html

I'm the network technician, at best :P, I will talk to my boss who's the IT director here. But I think we're on the right track.
Thanks for replying!
--------------------------
Did configuring your hosts file help you find the printer?

I don't know as I have no mac for almost half a year now.
Did putting it in /etc/hosts fix it for you? I should think it would but I don't like statical config. So I hope you can fix it with nmbd.

[carlitostsu]

It does work by changing it in the /etc/hosts file but the user does not want to modify it. (I tested it on another user's MAC)
I will try nmbd as soon as I get a chance and post the results on this forum.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Go to:

System Preferences > Network > [your network adaptor] > Advanced... > DNS

Then add your network's domain (usually something like mycompany.local, where "mycompany" is your company name -- ask the net admin for this information) to the "Search Domains:" list.

See if that helps resolving by name.