[lug] Unable to ping netbios names from linux

[David Anselmi]

Budyanto Himawan wrote:
[...]
> I have set up samba on linux and I'am able to share
> linux directories with my windows xp. I can also 
> ping the linux server from then windows xp but I can't
> do the reverse. I can't ping xp from linux by name.

Ping doesn't know anything about WINS.  Linux (the name service switch 
in libc) doesn't use WINS, except for the Samba apps.

[...]
 > Since that
> doesn't work I've also tried populating lmhosts with
> ip and netbios name of xp and pass it with -H arg to
> nmbd.
> 
> That still didn't work.

The machines in lmhosts can be looked up in WINS.  Linux doesn't use 
WINS to look things up.

The place NSS will look is in /etc/hosts.  Put the XP name and address 
there and it will work.

You might also want to look at winbindd from Samba.  It should enable 
your NSS to use WINS.  (Besides the changes to smb.conf, you probably 
also need to change /etc/nsswitch.conf.)

Dave