DNS problem, nslookup works, ping doesn't

Question

I am setting up a development server in my flat. I have set up an Ubuntu DNS server on it and have added the zone weddinglist (just weddinglist - no TLD. It's just an internal domain.)

This works fine on my Ubuntu laptop.

On all my Windows PCs (Vista and XP) I get the following from the command prompt:

C:\Users\Giles Roadnight>nslookup weddinglist
Server:  UnKnown
Address:  192.168.0.40

Name:    weddinglist
Address:  192.168.0.41


C:\Users\Giles Roadnight>ping 192.168.0.41

Pinging 192.168.0.41 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.0.41: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.41: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.41: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.41: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.41:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\Users\Giles Roadnight>ping weddinglist
Ping request could not find host weddinglist. Please check the name and try again.

My ipconfig:

C:\Users\Giles Roadnight>ipconfig -all

Windows IP Configuration

   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Giles-Desktop
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Marvell Yukon 88E8001/8003/8010 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : **-**-**-**-**-**
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::f179:680f:f313:5448%8(Preferred)
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.5(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.40
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

I am pretty sure that I have the DNS set up OK as the nslookup is OK but I can't ping and I can't access webpages at weddinglist.

How can I make ping work for the Windows PCs?

Answer 1

It's possible that the Windows internal resolver is adding '.local' to the domain name because there's no dots in it. nslookup wouldn't do that.

To verify this possiblity, install 'Wireshark' (previously aka Ethereal) on your client machine and observe any DNS request packets leaving it when you run the ping command.

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OK, further investigation on my own XP machine at home reveals that for single label names (i.e. "foo", or "foo.") the system doesn't use DNS at all, and instead uses NBNS (NetBios Name Service).

Using a hint found at http://www.chicagotech.net/netforums/viewtopic.php?t=1476, I found that I was able to force DNS lookups for single label domains by putting a single entry reading "." in the "Append these DNS suffixes (in order)" in the "Advanced TCP/IP settings" dialog