Name Resolution Issue - Any Advice

Hello everyone.

Here's my issue, I have the following machines in my home network:

1.) WinXP Pro Desktop
2.) WinXP Home Desktop
3.) WinXP home laptop
4.) Win98 Desktop

The first machine I have been using to share files from for quite some time. The second machine I newly built this past week.

They both have Asus P4S800 motherboards with onboard NIC's. Shortly after setting up the new machine, I noticed that both MB's had the same MAC address. So I installed the ASUS PCI Lan driver on both machines, and now they have different MAC addresses.

My issue is that now, none of my machines can get to the main machine (XP Pro) using name resolution. I can always get there by IP address, but name resolution is totally flaky now.

Here is some info from the 'client' machine (this is the one that formerly had the same MAC address, but the same behavior happens from my laptop also). When I first log in, I can't use name resolution. After a nbtstat -R and a nbtstat -A, I get name resolution back, but only for a short time, 5 to 15 minutes usually. This is some info from that machine:

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : ERP4
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : SiS 900-Based PCI Fast Ethernet Adap
ter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0E-A6-73-6C-C6
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.212
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 204.60.203.179
66.73.20.40
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, May 04, 2004 7:57:20 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, May 05, 2004 7:57:20 PM

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>ping vader
Ping request could not find host vader. Please check the name and try again.

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>nbtstat -r

NetBIOS Names Resolution and Registration Statistics
----------------------------------------------------

Resolved By Broadcast = 0
Resolved By Name Server = 0

Registered By Broadcast = 6
Registered By Name Server = 0

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>nbtstat -c

Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.212] Scope Id: []

No names in cache

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>nbtstat -R
Successful purge and preload of the NBT Remote Cache Name Table.

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>nbtstat -A 192.168.1.213

Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.212] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
VADER <00> UNIQUE Registered
MSHOME <00> GROUP Registered
VADER <20> UNIQUE Registered
VADER <03> UNIQUE Registered
MSHOME <1E> GROUP Registered
JIM <03> UNIQUE Registered
MSHOME <1D> UNIQUE Registered
..__MSBROWSE__.<01> GROUP Registered

MAC Address = 00-0C-6E-D8-1B-FE


C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>ping vader

Pinging vader [192.168.1.213] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.213: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.213: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.213: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.213: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.213:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>ping vader
Ping request could not find host vader. Please check the name and try again.

As a followup, here is some info from my 'host' machine:

C:\Documents and Settings\jim>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : vader
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No


Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : SiS 900-Based PCI Fast Ethernet Adap
ter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0C-6E-D8-1B-FE
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.213
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 204.60.203.179
66.73.20.40
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, May 04, 2004 7:21:20 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, May 05, 2004 7:21:20 PM

C:\Documents and Settings\jim>

Thanks,

I'll try the things you mentioned when I go home, and let you know if any of that helped.

Btw, just a few side notes:

1.) I definately didn't delete any of the hidden/admin shares

2.) This was never an issue until I added that 2nd PC with the same motherboard (ASUS P4S800) and noticed the issue that both machines had the same MAC address. I've had this network up and running with no problems, full name resolution, etc, right up until this MB issue last weekend.

The ASUS MB's have a 'hard' MAC address on the on-board nics that is the same for all MB's of that particualr make. While I was only running one of them it wasn't an issue. When I installed the 2nd one, I discovered the problem, and did a little research on the web about it. The MB ships with a PCI Lan driver, that updates the MAC address, which of course I hadn't installed until I ran into the issue. I'll try the ARP command and let you know if/how it works.

Thanks.

I tried the APR purge, I'm not sure If I did it correctly though.

I used the command arp -d *

I did this on both the host and client systems.

I also looked through all of the other things you mentioned, and everything was as it should be. I changed the auto disconnect time on both systems, and then tried again.

You might find the following log of events interesting.


C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>nbtstat -R
Successful purge and preload of the NBT Remote Cache Name Table.

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>nbtstat -A 192.168.1.200

Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.202] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
VADER <00> UNIQUE Registered
MSHOME <00> GROUP Registered
VADER <20> UNIQUE Registered
VADER <03> UNIQUE Registered
MSHOME <1E> GROUP Registered
MSHOME <1D> UNIQUE Registered
..__MSBROWSE__.<01> GROUP Registered

MAC Address = 00-0C-6E-D8-1B-FE


C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>time /T
09:03 PM

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>ping vader

Pinging vader [192.168.1.200] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.200: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.200: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.200: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.200: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.200:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>nbtstat -c

Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.202] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Remote Cache Name Table

Name Type Host Address Life [sec]
------------------------------------------------------------
VADER <00> UNIQUE 192.168.1.200 592
VADER <20> UNIQUE 192.168.1.200 545

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>time /T
09:03 PM

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>nbtstat -r

NetBIOS Names Resolution and Registration Statistics
----------------------------------------------------

Resolved By Broadcast = 3
Resolved By Name Server = 0

Registered By Broadcast = 6
Registered By Name Server = 0

NetBIOS Names Resolved By Broadcast
---------------------------------------------
VADER <00>
VADER <00>
VADER <00>

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>nbtstat -c

Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.202] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Remote Cache Name Table

Name Type Host Address Life [sec]
------------------------------------------------------------
VADER <00> UNIQUE 192.168.1.200 537
VADER <20> UNIQUE 192.168.1.200 490

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>time /T
09:04 PM

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>nbtstat -c

Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.202] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Remote Cache Name Table

Name Type Host Address Life [sec]
------------------------------------------------------------
VADER <00> UNIQUE 192.168.1.200 407
VADER <20> UNIQUE 192.168.1.200 360

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>ping vader

Pinging vader [192.168.1.200] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.200: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.200: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.200: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.200: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.200:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>time /T
09:06 PM

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>nbtstat -c

Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.202] Scope Id: []

No names in cache

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>time /T
09:13 PM

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>ping vader
Ping request could not find host vader. Please check the name and try again.

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>

try ipconfig /dnsflush on the machines and see if you can ping them by name and if they resolve to the correct IP then.

Thanks, but I've tried that.

in fact I've tried all of the following on both the host (XP Pro) and the client (XP home)

ipconfig /dnsflush
ipconfig /registerdns
nbtstat -R
nbtstat -RR
nbtstat -A {ip address}
netsh interface ip delete arpcache

Another strange thing I noticed last night is that I can always ping and ftp from the client to the host using IP address, but when I tried to ping from the host to the client using the clients IP address, I got nothing. I had a ping -t running from the client at the same time, so I know the connection was working at least one way, but thats another issue altogether.

One more strange thing I noticed. I have NO PROBLEM at all, pinging/ftping/etc to my XP Pro machine from my Win98 system. I didn't have to do anything at all to this system, it just worked. But both of my XP home systems are experiencing the problem.

The thing I'm most curious about, is how the netbios name is purged so quickly. when I do a nbtstat -c, the last column shows the "Life" which is always starts at 600 seconds, and then decreases. While I was trying to research nbtstat, alot of the examples I saw showed that value as "-1" but I couldn't find any info anywhere about how I might go about changing that value.

I appreciate all of the suggestions, but I'm totally at a loss here. I'm not sure what else I can do. I was thinking of trying some of the following:
a.) Chaning the names of the XP systems
b.) changing the workgroup of the XP systems
c.) disabling the onboard NIC on the XP Pro system, and putting a 3Com TX100 card in there.

Can you try using your LMHOSTS file? It will be located at:

c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\lmhosts.sam

You modify it as shown in the sample. For example, you have PC1 and PC2, you would list it like:

192.168.1.11 PC1
192.168.1.12 PC2

And so on for your machines. Make sure this file is on all of your machines (Windows NT and 2000 have it as c:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\lmhosts.sam while XP and later will be as above), and make sure that the files are renamed from lmhosts.sam to lmhosts (the .sam extension is for "sample", and if left behind will prevent resolution). Give this a shot, and remember to flush out the resolver cache on the respective systems after you setup the file.

I'll give the LMHOSTS thing a try. I'll just have to turn off DHCP to do that.

Here's a little nugget from Asus website about duplicate MAC addresses.

http://65.68.55.12/inetpub/ftproot/ASUS_SIS_MAC_Address_Problem.htm

well, I'm still plugging away here.

Anyway, what I've noticed now, that has me really concerned is this:

a.) from my XP home system, I can ping other systems by IP address without any issue (pinging by name is still an issue though)

b.) from my other systems though, I cannot ping that XP home system . Not even by IP address.

I'm thoroughly confused. I've never seen a situation where a system can send requests but not receive any requests.


EDIT: Nevermind, that was being caused because somehow the XP 'Internet Connection Firewall' got turned on.

OK, so what does work? Have you tried rebooting all of the systems after putting the new lmhosts file on the machines?

I seem to have it working now, I checked it very quickly, very late last night.

The things I did were:
a.) Assigned all systems static IP addresses
b.) Changed NetBIOS over TCP/IP from Auto to ON in the advanced TCP/IP tab
c.) made sure Internet Connection Firewall was off on all systems.
d.) ran the following commands on all systems.
ipconfig /release
arp -d *
nbtstat -R
nbtstat -RR
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /registerdns
e.) restarted all systems
f.) restarted router (linksys wrt54g)

At that point I was able to ping/ftp by name, without doing a nbtstat -A {ip address} command.

Hopefully this works, I will be able to tell for sure this weekend when I have some more time.

Thanks for all of the help.

Try using NSLookup which will query DNS, NBTStat is a WINS query command.
Also, look in the Hosts files on each of the PCs and make sure they are all correct.

Guys,

I am having the same issue that bluewookie was explaining. Though, my environment is slightly different and I can not use a hosts file for the solution per company policy. This is an enterprise environment, I have 3 app server behind a cisco content switch (basically a load balancer) and the ip address that resolves to the url resolves to the load balancer. At one location in penang, singapore users complain that they sometimes can not connect to the app servers via the url but can always connect via IP. I had a user do some testing and when he tries to ping the url it just says "Ping request could not find host" but ping the IP and of course it works. No other users at any location here or abroad are having this issue. Not sure how bluewookie resolved his issue, any suggestions?

Originally posted by Bluewookie:


After doing these things, in this order. my issue was resolved.