Cannot ping local or remote hostnames

[marks20101]

I'm using a wirless labtop but I'm having an issue where I cannot ping any hostname on the network.
From labtop:
ping hostname of a computer on NW << errmsg 'Ping request could not find host.'
ping IP of a computer on NW and it works.
When I ping local hostname or local IP I get a, 'request timed out'

From another machine on the network:
When I ping the labtop's hostname I get, "Ping Request could not find host..."
When I ping the labtop's IP address I get, "Request timed out."

I also did an IPCONFIG /ALL and pinged the default gateway IP, DNS and DHCP servers and all worked.

Is there any way to configure something here so that the wirless labtop can communicate with the rest of the network?

Windows XP Pro
Compaq Presario Notebook PC

Thanks!

 

[DelJo63]

this is called Ping By Name, the other form is Ping By IPaddress.

You should always be able to is Ping By IPaddress and if not, then there's a problem
with the TCP settings.

Ping By Name requires some service to translate Name=>Address.
At home, the simplest means is to add the names into the host file.
The file is located at
\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc\hosts
You may need to login as an admin id AND to reset the read-only attribute to
be able to save the file.

Use Notepad to do the edit.

The content should be

name (sp) address​

there must be at least one (sp) SPACE between the name and the address
eg: linux7srvr 192.168.0.2

ALL THAT SAID, you may have further issues on the network configuration.
The address of each system normally changes everytime you start the system due
to the DHCP service in your router. It is preferable to use DHCP rather than static
addresses, especially when you will seldomly need Ping By Name.

Hopefully, you don't need to debug your network every day, so I would recommend
AGAINST all of the above and use Ping By IPaddress when necessary.

 

[gguerra]

If your TCP/IP is setup correctly and you are not able to ping local by IP it may be firewall that is blocking ping requests. So start with ping with IP and unless you want to set up a host file stick with the ping by IP. If you were pinging by name over the internet all you would need is a valid DNS setting and there are many public DNS (domain name servers)

 

[DelJo63]

You need something like DynDNS.org to make your private LAN systems accessible by name.

 

[marks20101]

Thanks everybody! The host file entry worked.
192.168.0.100 machinenametocall
Now the labtop can access the machine by machine name. This is necessary for a database access descriptor (D.A.D) which calls the DB by machine name within the descriptor.

 

[DelJo63]

Every machine that needs access by name needs the host file update AND
the ip assignment of 192.168.0.100 machinenametocall needs to be static,
ie: don't use dhcp, but copy all the settings on machinenametocall and then make them manually.