Martijn Tonies wrote:

> Hi,
>
> > OK, i try to answer this one:
> >
> > The hostname is the name for an IP-adress which you get either from your
> > DNS-Server or from your HOST-file.
> > So, if your Network-admin doesn't update the DNS-System for your PC,
> > then you have to put the hostname, ip-Adress in your HOST-File.
> > You can check if your DNS-server knows your hostname with:
> > nslookup hostname
> > This should give you the IP-adress. You also can try:
> > nslookup ip-addr
> > which should give you the hostname.
> > I think nslookup is only available on Win-Professional Versions (if i'm
> > right).
> > If nslookup doesn't give you the right answer, then put the hostname,
> > ipaddr pair into your HOST-file.
>
> Nevertheless, I'm still a bit unsure :-)
>
> Take this:
> Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195]
> (C) Copyright 1985-2000 Microsoft Corp.
>
> C:\Documents and Settings\Martijn>nslookup iduna
> Server: ns-cache-1.ns.nl.demon.net
> Address: 194.159.73.136
>
> *** ns-cache-1.ns.nl.demon.net can't find iduna: Non-existent domain
>
> C:\Documents and Settings\Martijn>ping iduna
>
> Pinging iduna [192.168.2.5] with 32 bytes of data:
>
> Reply from 192.168.2.5: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=128
> Reply from 192.168.2.5: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
>
> Ping statistics for 192.168.2.5:
> Packets: Sent = 2, Received = 2, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
> Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
> Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 15ms, Average = 7ms
> Control-C
> ^C
> C:\Documents and Settings\Martijn>
>
> "iduna" (one of my servers) can be found by PING and
> runs Firebird. I can use the server name without problems.
>
> It doesn't do nslookup though.
>
> Ah well, it works fine here, so that's a start...
>
> Thanks for the explanation anyway.
>
> With regards,
>
> Martijn Tonies
> Database Workbench - developer tool for InterBase, Firebird, MySQL &
> MS SQL
> Server.
> Upscene Productions
> http://www.upscene.com

Martijn, now i would like to know also what's going on there.
I thought the Network Names in Windows and the DNS are two different things.
Maybe it's a WINS Server which is giving you the right IP-addr?
The reason i never stumped in this is that i learned the whole thing
under Unix like
systems, where you have to do it right in terms of 'there is nothing
which helps
you getting the ip for a hostname other then DNS or HOSTS'.
What if you stop your file sharing on this machine and the Wins server
isn't able to
give the right answer. Then you have to do it the right way (use DNS or
HOSTS).

Uwe