Kubuntu 7.10 cannot ping computers by hostname

[bvisser]

Hello. I have 2 almost identical networks setup:

1 on a linksys54g router running ubuntu 6.06 server and a bunch of windows boxes. From any machine on that network, i can ping any other machine by computer name.

I also have a network behind a Linksys 300N router. for some reason, on my kubuntu 7.10 box I cannot ping any other machine by hostname - just by IP address.

Does kubuntu have a firewall installed by default?
Please help!

- B

[BoeBoe]

Re: Kubuntu 7.10 cannot ping computers by hostname

Hi,

If you are using DHCP, you can configure your DHCP server by entering the IP address of your WINS server.

If you are using static IP, you can edit your /etc/hosts file.

[mechanism]

Re: Kubuntu 7.10 cannot ping computers by hostname

Hello. I have 2 almost identical networks setup:

1 on a linksys54g router running ubuntu 6.06 server and a bunch of windows boxes. From any machine on that network, i can ping any other machine by computer name.

I also have a network behind a Linksys 300N router. for some reason, on my kubuntu 7.10 box I cannot ping any other machine by hostname - just by IP address.

Does kubuntu have a firewall installed by default?
Please help!

- B

I use an HP Media Vault for remote network storage. My network is somewhat similar to yours but I did have issues pinging other computers using the computer's name. Pinging by IP address was simple. The HP Media Vault's FAQ page has a great "How To" on setting up NetBios recognition (pinging by computer name). The first part of this is applicable to your problem:

Here is the original link > http://www.k0lee.com/hpmediavault/#nfs

NFS/SMB mounting on Linux

Most Linux distributions today support SMB (CIFS) browsing via the Gnome or KDE graphical user interface (GUI). If you need more flexibility than the GUI offers, you can make a mount point directory and mount the HP Media Vault's folders directly. Before explaining how to do that, you should see if your Linux system can resolve the NetBios name of your HP Media Vault, which by default would be 'hpmediavault' unless you have changed it. If you can ping the media vault by its name from your Linux system, then you have the correct modules installed. If you cannot ping it, then you can perform these simple steps to allow NetBios name resolution. These steps are for a Ubuntu 6.06 Linux distribution and may vary depending on which distribution you're using. Some of the commands below will require you to be superuser (sudo su) or precede them with the sudo command.

edit /etc/nsswitch.conf with vi or gedit

and change the line that has:

hosts: files dns mdns

to this:

hosts: wins files dns mdns

Then install winbind:

sudo apt-get install winbind

after that, you should be able to ping your HP Media Vault:

ping hpmediavault

If the HP Media Vault begins responding to the ping, it becomes much easier to access with the browser or with the mount commands shown below because you no longer have to know its IP address.

Below are examples using a mount point at /mnt/mediavault via the command line. First you need to create a location where you can mount the share. Here is an example of making a mount point with the mkdir command:

mkdir /mnt/mediavault

/mnt/mediavault is the directory where we will demonstrate mounting a shared folder from your HP Media Vault. It's an arbitrary mounting location. You can just as easily create the directories for mounting shares anywhere you like. Here is an example of mounting one of the default shares (FileShare) when the HP Media Vault's IP address is 192.168.1.10:

mount -t nfs 192.168.1.10:/shares/Volume1/FileShare /mnt/mediavault

or

mount -t nfs hpmediavault:/shares/Volume1/FileShare /mnt/mediavault

The user ID and group ID (UID/GID) numbers for the Media Vault are determined by its internal software. You can find them if you telnet into the Media Vault and perform an ls -l on a directory to see the file information. When you select to use user mode, each user is assigned its own UID as it is set up. You could go into your Linux system and set up the users to match the UID/GID of how they are set up on the Media Vault. This is typically how NFS works, i.e., you need to synchronize those lists across machines. In the case of the Media Vault, the numbers are not user selectable, so you need to make the changes on other computers that do allow you to edit the UID/GID values.

If you prefer to use the SMB instead of NFS, you can mount a share with a command such as this:

mount -t smbfs //192.168.1.10/FileShare /mnt/mediavault

or

mount -t smbfs //hpmediavault/FileShare /mnt/mediavault

If you get an error about not understanding the file system, you may need to install smbfs using this command:

apt-get install smbfs

To unmount the folder, use this command:

umount /mnt/mediavault

to see what's mounted:

mount

If you would like your Linux system to automatically mount the Media Vault whenever it reboots, you can add this entry to /etc/fstab

hpmediavault:/shares/Volume1/FileShare /mnt/mediavault nfs

Please note, your Linux distribution may require a different order that what is shown above. That order works on Ubuntu. After adding the line to the /etc/fstab file, you can run the following command to get it to process the fstab file:

mount -a



I hope this helps.

Mike