What are these Workgroup IP addresses?

[Guest]

Hello,

I have two XP Pro sytems in a home network that connect to the net through a
Microsoft Router/hub that supports DHCP. Everything is working fine and I
am able to connect to the web and share resources on both systems.

If I ping the IP address of either computer I get a reply. If I ping the
hostname of the other computer, it times out and references an IP address
that I do not use. Below are cached IP addresses.

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: dimension.WorkGroup
Addresses: 209.86.66.94, 209.86.66.95, 209.86.66.90, 209.86.66.91
209.86.66.92, 209.86.66.93

Where did these IP addresses come from? How do I clear them so I will be
able to ping the hostname? My normal DHCP address in 192.x.x.x. This has
just recently become a problem.

Thanks much.

Dennis

 

[John Wunderlich]

I have two XP Pro sytems in a home network that connect to the net
through a Microsoft Router/hub that supports DHCP. Everything is
working fine and I am able to connect to the web and share
resources on both systems.

If I ping the IP address of either computer I get a reply. If I
ping the hostname of the other computer, it times out and
references an IP address that I do not use. Below are cached IP
addresses.

You are confusing TCP/IP names/addresses with NetBIOS-over-TCP/IP
(NetBT, aka "Windows Networking") names/addresses.

"Ping" is a TCP/IP application. TCP/IP does not know about Windows
networking addresses and thus will consult your default DNS server to
resolve the name to a TCP/IP address. Chances are this DNS server is
your ISP's server which knows nothing about your local machine names.
If you want to ping your local machines by name, then you will have to
put entries in the "HOSTS" file for each of your local machines. By
default for Win 2000/XP, the HOSTS file is located in:
c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc

If you want to "ping" your local machines by Microsoft Computer name,
you can use a windows networking application like "nbtstat" that
understands windows networking names/addresses:
nbtstat -a machine1

HTH,
John