PCs that are members of AD are able to ping a server by dns name - however
PCs that are members of a workgroup are not. Why is this? They are able to
ping the server by IP address. Thanks for any replies.

Pinging by FQDN (server.domain.com) name means that the dns client is able
to resolve the name by querying its DNS server. The DNS server is set in the
client's TCP/IP properties. It may be assigned by DHCP. It can be looked up
by running ipconfig /all at the command prompt.
The PC's that are members of the workgroup evidently have a different DNS
server.
If you ping a server by NETBIOS name (server) and it appends the domain name
to give you the FQDN, that is set by the "Append primary and connection
specific domain suffixes" property in the DNS client. A domain computer by
default appends its AD domain name. A workgroup computer does not.
Anthony





"Mick" <Mick@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AAEF4415-D336-4056-B359-A74C27042284@microsoft.com...
> PCs that are members of AD are able to ping a server by dns name - however
> PCs that are members of a workgroup are not. Why is this? They are able to
> ping the server by IP address. Thanks for any replies.

"Mick" <Mick@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AAEF4415-D336-4056-B359-A74C27042284@microsoft.com...
> PCs that are members of AD are able to ping a server by dns name - however
> PCs that are members of a workgroup are not. Why is this? They are able to
> ping the server by IP address. Thanks for any replies.

Well, they BOTH can do this (trivially) so something is
incomplete in your description or you have misconfigured
something.

Most likely thing you left out was to say that the ones which
fail don't work with the "short name" but that if you tried it
with the full DNS name it would work. (The non-AD machines
are more likely to NOT have their DNS name configured in the
SYSTEM CONTROL panel as part of their name.)

If that isn't what you meant, then the most likely reason is that
the non-AD machines are using another (the wrong) DNS server
on their IP settings.

Generally, INTERNAL machines should use STRICTLY the
internal DNS server(s) which then take care of external name
resolution too.

--
Herb Martin, MCSE, MVP
Accelerated MCSE
http://www.LearnQuick.Com
[phone number on web site]

"Most likely thing you left out was to say that the ones which
fail don't work with the "short name" but that if you tried it
with the full DNS name it would work. " - Correct. Is there a way to amend
the DNS server to make it work?

"Mick" <Mick@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C2FCFF49-AFEA-4D84-928F-4923C8E42EAC@microsoft.com...
> "Most likely thing you left out was to say that the ones which
> fail don't work with the "short name" but that if you tried it
> with the full DNS name it would work. " - Correct. Is there a way to
> amend
> the DNS server to make it work?

No*, and the RIGHT WAY to fix it is by setting the DNS full
name for each machine correctly in the SYSTEM CONTROL
PANEL.

[*How would the DNS server know WHICH ZONE, or for that
matter WHICH DNS server since they are all responsible for
different zones in general.]

(IF you need ADDITIONAL suffixes to work then this is
adjusted on the NIC but get the computer's full name correct first.)


--
Herb Martin, MCSE, MVP
Accelerated MCSE
http://www.LearnQuick.Com
[phone number on web site]