Why can't my machine resolve local windows hostnames?

When I ping any local windows hostname from my Ubuntu machine I get "unable to resolve host", but when I ping from a windows machine it works fine. Why would this be? Samba & Miredo are installed

6 Answers

To ping a netbios name in Ubuntu you need to add wins to /etc/nsswitch.conf. Run:

gksu gedit /etc/nsswitch.conf

And add wins to the line:

hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4

So it looks like this:

hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns wins mdns4

Save the file, close the text editor, and ping away.

If that does not work, open /etc/samba/smb.conf, and uncomment the "name resolve order" line:

name resolve order = wins lmhosts bcast

after that, restart nmbd smbd winbindd.

6

Running apt-get install winbind fixed it for me.

0

You may have to install the package libnss-winbind to be able to find windows computers by hostname. Simply installing winbind may not work. See answer.

1

Had the same problem, Ubuntu 14.04 trying to access PC with Windows 8. In addition to above recommendation I had to install libnss-winbind

sudo apt-get install libnss-winbind

Source:

1

If you have edited your /etc/nsswitch.conf file and installed winbind already (libnss-winbind or samba-winbind) and still have problems, you may need to disable your NSCD (Name Service Cache Daemon).

@Spivot +1

1. sudo apt-get install winbind libnss-winbind

2. sudo vi /etc/nsswitch.conf

   edit:

   hosts: files dns wins myhostname

3. sudo vi /etc/samba/smb.conf

edit:

[global]
wins server = x.x.x.x
name resolve order = host

Reboot for best results, or just:

sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

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