[TriLUG] Linux DNS Server issues with DOS client

[Aaron Joyner]

Roy Vestal wrote:

> Thanks Aaron, the spanning tree was the issue.
>
> Now a follow up question: So on this same dos setup I have multiple 
> Windows servers with 2 nics, the first nic is on the REAL network, the 
> second on this private in question. If I try to do a net use g: 
> \\servername\share, it says "the computer name specified is not found 
> in the network path cannot be located". My boot process mounts one 
> server as a drive but manually it doesn't. I've looked through the 
> autoexec.bat on this and I don't see anything that would cause this. 
> I've even put "hosts" and "lmhosts" in a dir that's on the path to no 
> avail.
>
> Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot this part?

As Ryan basically pointed out, this isn't really a DNS issue it's a 
Netbios issue.  DOS machines don't use DNS for name resolution, they use 
Netbios (Lanman) name mappings on the local network.  Unfortunately, I 
have very little experience with Netbios in DOS, and have little desire 
to acquire any more experience in said field of "expertise".  Having 
said that, the basics are that it's a broadcast protocol that attempts 
to locate other hosts by name.  If you're not on the same broadcast 
domain, you need a hard mapping (like the lmhosts).  If you're with in 
the same broadcast domain, it should "just work".  I'd go with Ryan's 
suggestion, or perhaps further experimentation / googling on the lmhosts 
file.

Best of luck!
Aaron S. Joyner