Networking Question

Joined
Jun 24, 2009
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Just bought my first Mac in about 15 years and I have a networking question.

I've installed the Microsoft Remote Desktop client and can connect to PC's on my network via IP. I cannot connect by machine name. I also notice I can't ping by machine name in the network utility or the terminal. What's strange is, in the Sidebar in the Finder all my pc's show up by name, and I can browse their shares with no problem.

So what do I need to do to be able to ping and connect to PC's via machine name instead of IP?
 
Joined
Feb 25, 2009
Messages
2,112
Reaction score
71
Points
48
Your Mac's Specs
Late 2013 rMBP, i7, 750m gpu, OSX versions 10.9.3, 10.10
Ping and MS RDC for Mac does not by default recognize netbios names on OSX. The sidebar is using Samba to interact which does support netbios naming.

You can try a cheat tho, and do:

computername.local

and see if it works. I use it frequently and have no problems on the windows network at work.

so, if a computer on your network was named homepc - you would ping it with the command:

ping homepc.local

If that doesn't work for you, you can add entries in your hosts file for each machine, or you can setup a DNS server...
 
OP
J
Joined
Jun 24, 2009
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
1
That works great, I should have been able to figure that out. :) Thanks Nethfel.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top