[bobthecannibal]

I am having extreme difficulties in getting the blasted ping to work using computers names. If I have the ip already and type it into terminal it works fine, but if I type in "ping computername" it doesn't work! but if I type in "ping 192.xxx.xxx.xxx" it works! What could be causing this and does anyone know how to fix this, It works fine on my friends iBook aslong as it is in the same workgroup.

Speaking of which is there a way to change my workgroup in OS X?

Thanks in advance!

[Detrius]

Originally posted by bobthecannibal:
I am having extreme difficulties in getting the blasted ping to work using computers names. If I have the ip already and type it into terminal it works fine, but if I type in "ping computername" it doesn't work! but if I type in "ping 192.xxx.xxx.xxx" it works! What could be causing this and does anyone know how to fix this, It works fine on my friends iBook aslong as it is in the same workgroup.

Speaking of which is there a way to change my workgroup in OS X?

Thanks in advance!

You know that you can't always do "ping ibook", but you have to "ping ibook.local". In addition, if the two machines are not on the same subnet, then it won't work.

If you aren't talking about rendezvous, check "nslookup computername".

You can change the workgroup in Directory Access.

[bobthecannibal]

Cheers Detrius for your reply

I am aware that i cant always just ping the name and sometimes have to include the workgroup but even if i try to ping a name with the workgroup it still does not work. All of the computers are on the same subnet.

Cheers for telling me how to change my workgoup.

[ginoledesma]

Remember that your computer has to ask someone how to convert a name into an IP address. Usually, this is the role of the DNS server. Your DNS server has to keep track of the names of the computers and their IP addresses.

If you're connected to something like a wireless router to a broadband connection, something like a Netgear or Linksys, chances are it acts as your initial DNS server. However, these cheap routers don't go asking your computer what its name is and then keeping track of those for use. So even if you know what "name" the other computer carries, your DNS server doesn't, and chances are your Mac doesn't either.

You can manually define the association of names to IP addresses yourself by modifying the /etc/hosts file. However, if your router is also acting as a DHCP server, this can be moot if the IP address of computers change all the time. Not all routers can be configured to associate names to IPs, so check out the documentation that came with your router if it allows you to do so.