Can ping by name, not IP?!

[KatNelson7717]

We have two computers on a Windows network at my workplace that we can't "see" on the network (i.e., network neighborhood). This also results in my not being able to access their computer shares by unc path, nor can I connect to the machines via the manage computer option. They are both Windows XP Pro sp3 machines, and both are members of our domain. I can ping them by their computer name but the IP address ping fails. Any idea what the issue might be? Thanks!

 

[SparkMonkeyHellion]

I've had that happen before... can't for the life of me remember how I fixed it... sorry!

However, here's the script to make a .bat which will statically set your IP address:

cd\
netsh interface ip set address name="Local Area Connection" static 192.168.0.100 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.1 1
pause

the first IP is the host IP addy - second is the subnet mask and the third is the default gateway addy the last number with which NIC number... which will be 1 if you only have one nic.

just copy that into a .bat file and run it on your machines....

or maybe just do

CMD > ipconfig /release

 

[office politics]

when you ping a computer by dns name, the first step the computer makes is to resolve the dns name to ip address. the computer then sends imcp packets to the resolved ip address.

when you ping by name, it should show an ip in the output. does this ip match the ip that you have on file?

also, you can disable the windows firewall to see if it is blocking you from seeing these computers. also check to see if the computer browser is running on these pcs.

 

[KatNelson7717]

Thank you both for your suggestions. I had a couple minutes to look at one of the machines while the user was at lunch. I was going to start with the easiest and most obvious fix....checking the computer browser service. It had been set to manual and was stopped. When I tried to start it, I got an error message 1075: the dependency service does not exist or has been marked for deletion. The only other service showing in the dependencies tab was workstation.
When I compare this to what was showing under the dependencies tab in the computer browser service ON MY COMPUTER, I have both server and workstation listed. I guess my next step will be to get back to the problem computer and see if it has the server service started.

As far as pinging goes - no matter whose computer I ping on our network, they all reply from the same IP (174.136.50.106). We have a perimeter firewall, but that is not it's IP. (?)
We are a small (appx 50 user) network, and we use static IP's.

I will try to get back to the other computer to see if it's computer browser service is also stopped.

Thanks

 

[office politics]

As far as pinging goes - no matter whose computer I ping on our network, they all reply from the same IP (174.136.50.106).

this is a dns / wins issue. is there a internal dns server? are the records up to date?

if so, is there a hosts file configured on the workstation?

 

[SparkMonkeyHellion]

Hmmm... since everything responds with the same addy it sounds like some sort of proxy thing goin on.

Go to RUN > CMD and type in the following > ipconfig /displaydns

Scroll around until you find the IP you listed and tell me what it's name is.