Strange network issue

I use Windows 7 on 2 laptops and Windows Server 2003 for DHCP, DNS, HTTP, etc.

Last night I decided to change the servers computer name to "mars" and the Eee PC's name to deimos. Changes went through, but I started to notice something very strange.

If you ping afx-eee (the Eee's old computer name), it replies with 10.2.2.4. If you ping deimos (the Eee's new computer name), it replies with an IPv6 address. Same thing applies. At this point, there is no such computer named afx-eee on the network at all. I fired up my second laptop (did not make any changes to this one) and it too can see afx-eee but not deimos? I have restarted the Eee PC several times and this problem still happens.

Another problem is that if I pinged localhost from either laptop, it would return an IPv6 address (where I believe it should be returning 127.0.0.1).

So I am at a loss at this point. I tried editting the hosts file on the Eee PC and added a localhost entry for 127.0.0.1 and when pinging localhost, it returns 127.0.0.1, but whenever I ping the computer name from said computer it returns IPv6 address????

For testing purposes, I thought this was a DNS issue. I removed the server from the equation and had my router handling DNS and DHCP. Same dice. Even did a factory reset. I even reconfigured my DHCP and DNS on the server (deleted the roles and added them back), no luck. I even tried unchecking IPv6 from the network card properties, same problem.

Since then, I have changed the Eee PC's name back to afx-eee, now getting same problems as above except deimos still shows that it is on the network (but it isn't). I even reinstalled my drivers and that did not help. Reset Winsock too, same problem. Pulling my hair out on this one.

The W2k3 server does not show any of these symptoms, and is up to speed with current computer names (the moment I changed afx-eee to deimos, the server resolved that quickly, showing replies from an IPv4 address, changed back to afx-eee, it worked with no problems and could no longer see deimos, but the 2 laptops could still see deimos)

AFX said:

I use Windows 7 on 2 laptops and Windows Server 2003 for DHCP, DNS, HTTP, etc.

Last night I decided to change the servers computer name to "mars" and the Eee PC's name to deimos. Changes went through, but I started to notice something very strange.

If you ping afx-eee (the Eee's old computer name), it replies with 10.2.2.4. If you ping deimos (the Eee's new computer name), it replies with an IPv6 address. Same thing applies. At this point, there is no such computer named afx-eee on the network at all. I fired up my second laptop (did not make any changes to this one) and it too can see afx-eee but not deimos? I have restarted the Eee PC several times and this problem still happens.

Another problem is that if I pinged localhost from either laptop, it would return an IPv6 address (where I believe it should be returning 127.0.0.1).

So I am at a loss at this point. I tried editting the hosts file on the Eee PC and added a localhost entry for 127.0.0.1 and when pinging localhost, it returns 127.0.0.1, but whenever I ping the computer name from said computer it returns IPv6 address????

For testing purposes, I thought this was a DNS issue. I removed the server from the equation and had my router handling DNS and DHCP. Same dice. Even did a factory reset. I even reconfigured my DHCP and DNS on the server (deleted the roles and added them back), no luck. I even tried unchecking IPv6 from the network card properties, same problem.

Since then, I have changed the Eee PC's name back to afx-eee, now getting same problems as above except deimos still shows that it is on the network (but it isn't). I even reinstalled my drivers and that did not help. Reset Winsock too, same problem. Pulling my hair out on this one.

The W2k3 server does not show any of these symptoms, and is up to speed with current computer names (the moment I changed afx-eee to deimos, the server resolved that quickly, showing replies from an IPv4 address, changed back to afx-eee, it worked with no problems and could no longer see deimos, but the 2 laptops could still see deimos)

You could of cousre change from Homegroup to "workgroup" which only uses IPv4. Homegroup is for win 7 machines only.

Ken

I think I fixed it for the most part, but I have one more issue left. The Eee PC (now named back to afx-eee) responds to ping replies both by deimos and afx-eee. I tried doing ipconfig /displaydns, ipconfig /flushdns, and then an ipconfig /registerdns. The deimos entry disappears of course but when pinging it again to be safe, it starts replying back, as does afx-eee when pinging.

I've narrowed it down with W2k3, and I am stuck on getting this cleared...Eee PC now has an IP of 10.2.2.2, can't ping it from the Eee PC but from the server, if you do ping deimos it resolves to 10.2.2.4 and fails because that IP isn't in use...perhaps I am posting in the wrong place now.

The problem has been resolved. Stupid WINS. This can be locked/deleted.