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What protocol is used to reach computers by typing their names? For instance ping laptopone essentially finds the IP of the device and then pings it.

I used to have an AVM FritzBox 6360 as router / DHCP server within my network. Every device was reachable by its network name. Now I changed to a new box called ConnectBox and only half of my systems remain reachable:

myuser@systemone:~$ ping laptopone
ping: laptopone: Name or service not known

I assume that the AVM took the job of associating the DNS calls, basically associating the computer name to an IP address. The ConnectBox doesn't seem to do that job which means only some systems have the needed service running as daemon or process.

What type of service is needed on a system to enable it to answer to its name when there are network calls like ping or ssh?

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  • I'm not sure what you're trying to ask exactly, as you've answered yourself within your question. DNS is exactly the thing that translates names to IPs. Sounds like perhaps there is a configuration issue with your router/DHCP or the client network configuration (or simply you are trying to use names that aren't the names of your devices).
    – dobey
    Mar 19, 2018 at 18:43
  • avahi-daemon on Linux does the job of publishing a machine's own hostname as hostname.local domain in the local network and allows discovering other hosts doing this. You should be able to refer to other Ubuntu machines this way, where avahi should be preinstalled. It doesn't work on Windows, but IIRC if you have e.g. iTunes or Bonjour installed there, they should get the same ability.
    – Byte Commander
    Mar 19, 2018 at 18:56
  • @dobey I had to change between two routers. The problem rose with the new router. Since then only half of my several machines are reachable by their names. The other half is still reachable by their IP, but not by their name. I am having a hard time finding out what the problem is. I tried to use nmap, but no discovery there. One system only allows ssh/22, but is still reachable by its name. Another system has ssh/22, netbios-ssn/139 and microsoft-ds/445 open, but is not reachable by its name, only by its IP address.
    – Socrates
    Mar 19, 2018 at 19:04
  • @ByteCommander Ok, my laptop (Ubuntu 17.10) is connected to the LAN, but not reachable by its name. nmap mylaptop results in Failed to resolve "mylaptop".. nmap mylaptop.local also results in Failed to resolve "mylaptop.local".. nmap 192.168.0.45 though results in finding the laptop and showing that it offers ssh/22. Anything I could further try or check?
    – Socrates
    Mar 19, 2018 at 19:10
  • Nope, sorry. I don't have the resources to try stuff out right now.
    – Byte Commander
    Mar 19, 2018 at 19:15

1 Answer 1

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Solved by recognizing that the mentioned router doesn't have any DNS service. Building an own DNS server with Bind and propagating it using DHCP might be the solution. Thanks to @ByteCommander and @dobey.

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