Here is the condensed version:
2 VLANS. Adtran 3120. No Domain on network, strictly workgroups.
Computers on one VLAN unable to resolve the names on the other VLAN.

Wire shark shows that when I ping Joe it sends out NBNS query?
I thought Net bios went the way of a Dodo bird at Win 2000.

How can we use DNS to resolve local names since the router/is the DHCP and DNS server?

Can anyone confirmn setting up a WINS server to be the answer?
As of right now it is a small network and forwarding Netbios traffic is a small concern. But putting in helper IPs or ip forward-protocol udp netbios-ns and a few other things into the router didn't help

Sorry for the late response but yes you need a WINS server and Netbios is still alive and kicking.

I thought workgroups went the way of the dodo bird at WFW3.11...

It's a bit kludgy but you could always just roll out a custom hosts file to each client - problem solved.

No, there's still plenty of workgroups in use out there. I wouldn't use the hosts file method as this is just huge PITA. Its pretty easy to setup a WINS server in any version of Windows Server and if the client is not running any server software then I would use one of the free WINS servers that are available.

can't say i ever thought of dropping a text file into a folder as a huge PITA but i got the impression they were without a server and a common hosts file will work even when the workstation running a free WINS server is turned off. fwiw.

Its a management nightmare though. Any time you add a computer or change a computer name then you have to create a new Hosts file and go through all the workstations and replace the existing file. Either way will work but from a management standpoint a WINS server is the way to go.

I recently took over a network that had 75 devices in it, no DNS, DHCP, or WINS server, and the old admin modified all the Hosts files on each workstation

i agree, i just like the mental exercise. =) i suppose you could set up a logon script in the Local Group Policy Editor to grab a new copy from a fileshare - then you'd only have one file to update for adds/moves/changes. no doubt though, by the time you've gone through all that trouble, a freebie WINS server doesn't look so bad.


eeeeek! now that's just crazy... i would never do it with more than a dozen or so clients and even then, only in a pinch.

i had a customer who was using an old XP box as a file server and sometimes they'd lose their drive mappings. the previous sysadmin had created a batch file on each desktop with NET USE commands to delete and remap the shares. the users would just double-click on it any time they couldn't get to their files.

Thanks guys, I had set up a WINS server and all is well with the world now.

I guess my main question is even witht he forwarding commands, why didn;t it work?

It can work across a router but it is NEVER recommended to do so. There are three effective ways and this is with a DNS server, WINS server, or the use of LMHOSTS files. There can be issues with master browser elections across routers where you may end up with two or more master browsers and even more problems and headaches than are worth it. Another issue is allowing broadcast traffic to eat up precious WAN bandwidth. In your case the correct fix was the WINS server.