[Samba] Resolving NetBIOS names within linux

[John H Terpstra]

On Thu, 17 Oct 2002, Bert Rapp wrote:

>
> I want to be able to resolve windows machine names to their IP addresses
> while using Linux.  What I'd like to be able to do, from my linux box at
> the command line is this,
>
> ping windows_machine_name
>
> Is there any way I can do this?

If you are using the samba-team RPM package for your linux system, then we
know you have libnss_wins.so in /lib.

So long as this library exists on your system:

1. Configure /etc/samba/smb.conf globals section
	If your samba server is the WINS server you will have:
		wins support = Yes
	If your samba server is a WINS client then you will have:
		wins server = x.x.x.x, where x.x.x.x is the WINS server
			IP address.

2. Edit your /etc/nsswitch.conf file so it has:
	hosts: files dns wins

3. Try it:
	ping windows_machine_name

- John T.

-- 
John H Terpstra
Email: jht at samba.org