[Samba] How does one use a Netbeui name to ping?

[Jamie Risk]

Hello,

If I wished to ping a windows machine from a Linux box _not_ using the
dotted quad address, how can I discover their IP name (using their NetBeui
name)?

 * DNS is not running locally, (does it need too?)
 * There isn't a local domain, I imagine we're using our ISP's domain name
    (we're running the lan segment off a switch connected to a DSL
modem/router)
 * Windows and Linux boxes alike get their IP addresses from the DSL modem
    acting as a DHCP server.

I expect I'll need to install a local DNS server/cache. On the whole I'm
finding my
first network admin work a bit overwhelming - if someone can point me
towards the
documentation for my next step to get ping working with fully qualified IP
names on
my lan segment, I'd look forward to reading and learning about it.

- Jamie

I'm rather confused