Problem accessing computer via their name over network.. only IPs work???

[thepunkerguy]

Ok, well i have a problem with my laptop. I bought an acer laptop a couple months ago and when i bought it i did a full reload with Windows XP Pro. My problem is this, when i connect to a network, i cannot access the other computers on my network from the laptop via their computer name... They dont show up under workgroup computers and if i type in a computers name manually ex. "\\server" then it wont bring up their shared files either. But if i go into explorer and manually enter their IP such as "\\192.168.0.22" then it will bring up their shared files and work fine. Yes, the comps are all on the same workgroup and yes they are all in the same IP set. It doesnt matter what network i put my laptop on, it does the same thing. And it does it rather i am using wireless or wired network. I have tried to reinstall the xp network stuff and my network cards, no help... HELP!
- Mike

 

[kcnychief]

It is a DNS issue, plain and simple.

Go to a CMD prompt, type in "ipconfig /flushdns" and hit enter. After that completes type in "ipconfig /registerdns"

Do that on all machines that are having the problem, report results. May also want to look in event viewer for any errors related to DNS counters.

 

[Mooz]

check the dns suffix listed in the computer name sheet (system properties computer name) is correct as this causes all sorts of problems if incorrect