Ping request could not find host

[Andy Reynolds]

My system doesn't appear to be able to resolve some of
the names in my hosts file. For example, in my hosts
file (C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts) I have the
following entry:
192.168.8.87 lj4000

But when I try to ping, I get the following response:

Ping request could not find host lj4000. Please check the
name and try again.

Does anyone have an idea of what I should look at?

Thanks alot!
Andy

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

My system doesn't appear to be able to resolve some of
the names in my hosts file. For example, in my hosts
file (C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts) I have the
following entry:
192.168.8.87 lj4000

But when I try to ping, I get the following response:

Ping request could not find host lj4000. Please check the
name and try again.

Andy,

some viruses disable the host file or, more precisely, point
Windows at another one.

Hans-Georg

 

[Guest]

-----Original Message-----


Andy,

some viruses disable the host file or, more precisely, point
Windows at another one.

Hans-Georg

This is a newly installed system and I have Norton
Antivirus installed, so I don't see how that could be.
Regardless, where do I find the setting that points
Windows at the hosts file? I'd like to check to see if
it's pointing to the right place.

Thanks,

Andy

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

This is a newly installed system and I have Norton
Antivirus installed, so I don't see how that could be.
Regardless, where do I find the setting that points
Windows at the hosts file? I'd like to check to see if
it's pointing to the right place.

I don't know offhand. Give me a second, perhaps I can find it.

OK, here we go.

I think it's in the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\SYSTEM
\CurrentControlSet
\Services
\Tcpip
\Parameters
Value of type REG_MULTI_SZ
Name: DataBasePath

The content should be the path where Windows finds the hosts
file.

Several viruses are known to redirect Windows to the
Windows\help folder (or perhaps some other folder) and put their
own hosts file there.

Hans-Georg

 

[Andy Reynolds]

I don't know offhand. Give me a second, perhaps I can
find it.

OK, here we go.

I think it's in the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\SYSTEM
\CurrentControlSet
\Services
\Tcpip
\Parameters
Value of type REG_MULTI_SZ
Name: DataBasePath

The content should be the path where Windows finds the hosts
file.

Several viruses are known to redirect Windows to the
Windows\help folder (or perhaps some other folder) and put their
own hosts file there.

Hans-Georg

I checked that and it is pointing at %SystemRoot%\System32
\drivers\etc, which should be correct. I noticed that it
is a type REG_EXPAND_SZ instead of REG_MULTI_SZ, does
that make any difference?

Any other thoughts?

I really appreciate the help.

Thanks,
Andy

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

I checked that and it is pointing at %SystemRoot%\System32
\drivers\etc, which should be correct. I noticed that it
is a type REG_EXPAND_SZ instead of REG_MULTI_SZ, does
that make any difference?

Andy,

sorry, that was a typo of mine. REG_EXPAND_SZ is correct.

Any other thoughts?

Hmm, not many. Viruses could use other means to compromise the
name resolution and bypass hosts. But you wrote that you have
scanned the computer for viruses, so that is unlikely (though
not entirely impossible, could be a new virus or one that Norton
misses).

One other thought is, what exactly is the file name of your
hosts file?

Hans-Georg

 

[Andy Reynolds]

-----Original Message-----


Andy,

sorry, that was a typo of mine. REG_EXPAND_SZ is correct.


Hmm, not many. Viruses could use other means to compromise the
name resolution and bypass hosts. But you wrote that you have
scanned the computer for viruses, so that is unlikely (though
not entirely impossible, could be a new virus or one that Norton
misses).

One other thought is, what exactly is the file name of your
hosts file?

Hans-Georg

The file is C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts I am
not hiding extensions, so I know that's not a problem.

Thanks,
Andy

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

The file is C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts I am
not hiding extensions, so I know that's not a problem.

Andy,

I'm running out of ideas. One last thing to check is to ping the
IP address of the printer to make sure that it does respond to
pings.

ping 192.168.8.87

Hans-Georg

 

[Andy Reynolds]

I'm running out of ideas. One last thing to check is to
ping the

IP address of the printer to make sure that it does respond to
pings.

ping 192.168.8.87

Hans-Georg

It does find respond, and if I do a ping -a 192.168.8.87,
it returns the name.

Andy

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

It does find respond, and if I do a ping -a 192.168.8.87,
it returns the name.

Andy,

now you could test where the name comes from, by removing the
line from the hosts file and rebooting the computer, then trying

ping -a 192.168.8.87

again. I'm not sure where this would lead us, but playing around
with a defect sometimes reveals something that can lead to a
solution.

Otherwise everything seems to be set up correctly, as far as I
can tell. That leaves the more general problem sources, adware,
NetBIOS over TCP/IP disabled, an old version of a third party
firewall or virus checker getting in the way, Winsock
corruption, etc.

Perhaps you can look through http://www.michna.com/kb/wxnet.htm
for ideas. I would at least use a program like SpyBot to remove
adware, check whether NetBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled, disable,
if not entirely uninstall, third party firewalls and antivirus
programs, and do the Winsock repair procedure.

Hans-Georg

 

[Andy Reynolds]

now you could test where the name comes from, by
removing the

line from the hosts file and rebooting the computer, then trying

ping -a 192.168.8.87

again. I'm not sure where this would lead us, but playing around
with a defect sometimes reveals something that can lead to a
solution.

Otherwise everything seems to be set up correctly, as far as I
can tell. That leaves the more general problem sources, adware,
NetBIOS over TCP/IP disabled, an old version of a third party
firewall or virus checker getting in the way, Winsock
corruption, etc.

Perhaps you can look through http://www.michna.com/kb/wxnet.htm
for ideas. I would at least use a program like SpyBot to remove
adware, check whether NetBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled, disable,
if not entirely uninstall, third party firewalls and antivirus
programs, and do the Winsock repair procedure.

Hans-Georg

I tried removing the line from my hosts file and doing
the ping -a, it still responded with the name. I don't
know where it is coming from.

I looked over your web site, a lot of good info there by
the way, but I didn't find anything additional that might
help with this problem.

At this point, I think I'm just going to bite the bullet
and reload. I don't have a lot of stuff installed on
this machine yet anyway.

Thanks alot, I really appreciate your time and help.

Andy