Name resolution without .local?

[greenbirdweb]

Hi -

I have a Mac server (10.4.6) set up at work to host an internal website I created. Its name is "Documentation". When working on a PC, all I have to do to find the website is to open Internet Exploder and type in "documentation" for the address. The site comes right up. On a Mac client, however, simply typing "documentation" makes Safari look for "www.documentation.com". The server doesn't have an external connection, therefore it just times out and says it can't find the server. I would have expected things to work the other way around... Macs finding the site without problem, PCs having the problem, if any.

This morning I discovered that I can get to the site if I type "documentation.local" into Safari. Any ideas on why the difference and what to do about it? It would be nice, when I tell everyone about the site, to just say, "Point your browser at 'documentation,' rather than having to say, "If on a PC, point your browser at 'documentation,' or, if on a Mac, 'documentation.local.'" Besides, just "documentation" looks better than "documentation.local"...

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[Blisterphish]

We used to have that problem a lot which drove me nuts. Safari always placed the stupid www in front of everything. We ended up enterning the IP of the local server then saving the page in the end-user's favorites list and just changing the display name. It's a cheap work around but it got the job done. Why it does it........I don't know.