Unable to resolve one network name to an IP address on home network using one specific computer

Is this machine in a domain or a workgroup?

Try to force enabe netbios on your network card.

1) Go to control panel
2) Newtork center
3) right clic on card and select "properties"
4) Select TCP/IP V4 and click "properties"
5) go to "Advanced" button
6) click on "WINS"
7) Select "Enable NetBios over TcpIP"
8) Valide & quit
9) try

http://ecross.mvps.org/howto/enable-netbios-over-tcp-ip-with-windows.htm

There is no domain.  I have a workgroup.  I also have joined all of my computers into a Windows homegroup on my network.

I have enabled NetBIOS over TCP/IP and rebooted.  When that didn't work, I tried the following (rebooting after each step to ensure that any required reboots happened):
1. disable ipv6 on my laptop
2. release and renew the IP address on my laptop
3. restart the router

I just noticed that when I go to the Windows Explorer and click on Network in the left column, the device does show up under the "Other Devices" group.  Its properties show the correct IP address and the "Device Webpage" shows the correct IP address, but the link redirects to the device page by name, which fails to resolve.

Also, when I type \\DeviceName in the top of Windows Explorer, I get an error message that states "Windows cannot access \\DeviceName" with the error code 0x80004005 (Unspecified Error).

As I kept looking for answers, I ran across some pages that mentioned LLTD (Link-Layer Topology Discovery).  I have this enabled on my laptop, but there is no option to enable it on the device (and other systems can map the device correctly anyway, as already stated).  I tried disabling LLTD on my laptop, but that had no effect.

Update:

I have figured out how to use nslookup in debug mode and have determined that it is not a DNS issue.  My router does not provide DNS services at all and just passes them up to the ISP.  So the name translation is likely coming from WINS, LLTD, or some other Windows service.

you'll find some relevant settings hidden in the tcpip properties of your network connections (see the netbios-related checkbox and wins tab. compare them with a working machine. hopefully they should look the same in seven and previous versions)

also if the computer was declared to be on a public network when it was first connected to the internet, netbios might not be enabled at all or may be firewalled

can you confirm that nslookup works / does not resolve on this machine / others ?

can you check the "node type" on this one and a working one (in "ipconfig /all") ? i kinda recollect the default node type was changed in seven which changes the order and what kind of name resolution is performed.

note that setting up a dns or dns+dhcp server will likely be shorter than debugging this mess if you have a machine available

Thanks for your help.  The issue is not resolved. I may need to open some other, more specific questions.  I'll leave this one open for a few more days just in case someone has any more ideas I can try.

Additional information:

* Re-installing the original OS (Windows 8) fixes the issue.
* Upgrading to Windows 8.1 does not cause the issue.
* Installing my software does not cause the issue.

From what I can tell, the issue starts when I connect to my college Wi-Fi, which uses Juniper UAC as its access control system.  There is no software installed (that I've found), and I use my computer as a standard (non-admin) user so I don't know what changes it could have made to the system.  (I haven't found any.)  Once the problem starts, I have not been able to reverse it without a clean install of Windows.

Here's what I did:

* Right click on the Wi-Fi indicator and click "Open Network and Sharing Center".
* Under the name of the home network, it says "Private Network".
* Click on "Change Adapter Settings"
* Right click on the Wi-Fi adaptor and select Properties.
* Select "Internet Protocol Version 4" and click Properties.
* On the General Tab, click Advanced.
* Select the WINS tab.
* The NetBIOS Setting is "Default".  Change it to "Enable".
* Click OK/Close on all opened windows.

No change in resolution of the host.

Here's the output of "ipconfig /all" on the problem machine:

Windows IP Configuration
   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : AmpersatLaptop
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Peer-Peer
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : home
...
Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : home
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom BCM4352HMB 802.11ac 2x2 Wi-Fi Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 24-0A-64-E7-52-21
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::90d3:6f70:d572:c594%2(Preferred)
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.3.163(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, March 25, 2014 10:06:12 PM
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, March 27, 2014 10:20:11 PM
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.3.1
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.3.1
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 321129060
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1A-B5-7F-C8-9C-B6-54-C5-FE-8F
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
                                       192.168.3.1
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled
...

Here's the output on a Windows 8.1 computer that does no have an issue:

Windows IP Configuration
   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Carl-PC
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : home
...
Ethernet adapter Ethernet:
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : home
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1A-A0-6B-E5-2D
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::ad3d:35c9:ed86:7ac3%3(Preferred)
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.3.241(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, March 17, 2014 6:20:04 PM
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, March 27, 2014 3:37:25 PM
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.3.1
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.3.1
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 251665056
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-18-9C-06-0F-00-1A-A0-6B-E5-2D
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
                                       192.168.3.1
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled
...


After doing a bit of searching online, I figured out how to change it to hybrid, like the working computer.  Still not working, but maybe a reboot is needed.  I'm going to reboot and see what happens.

Both HP and Microsoft support failed to figure out the issue (let alone fix it).  I've also failed to figure it out (and I'm no Windows novice).  But with your tips, I have finally figured out how to deal with this issue (which may arise again).

My hat is off to you.

The registry setting that I changed was:

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetBT\Parameters
Value: DhcpNodeType
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 8 (previously 2)

I'm not sure if there is a way to change the value other than registry editing (netsh?), but at least now I have a solution, so I can deal with regedit (or .reg files) if I need to.  Feel free to offer better alternatives if there are any.

Excellent!  Thanks again!

nodetype it was... btw, you did most of the debug ;)

i recollect that unchecking/checking the "enable netbios over tcpip" checkbox in the wins or lmhosts tab of the properties of the internet connection did the job on previous windows versions but i'm not all that sure. likely it works with an extra step such as reinstalling (disabling/enabling) the microsoft file and printer sharing client or possibly tcpip

normally, the node type should be inherited through dhcp. this is likely what happens in your case when you connect to the juniper hotspot. it is not uncommon to disable netbios on such networks for obvious security reasons. you can set the nodetype properly on your home router. google says it's option 46. if that does not work, export the key in a .reg with the proper value and launch it when necessary

if you want to try without registry hacks,

this article should help but i'm too lazy to dig into the netsh command line and i don't have a windows around currently
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490946.aspx

maybe also give a try to nbtstat or better wmic which both have options to enable/disable netbios so one might feature nodetype setting

but i think a .reg is likely to be much simpler

Thanks for the follow-up.  I'll look into those.

I know I did a lot of debug, but no amount of debug helps if you don't know where to look to properly fix the problem.  That was the critical piece of information you supplied.

I did want to add to this question to say that I decided to set the NetBIOS setting back to Default instead of Enable.  Even after a reboot, I was able to resolve the hostname properly.  Therefore, I don't think (in my case) that this option played any role in the solution.  (Most likely my system is set to Enable by default anyway, so explicitly changing it to Enable doesn't affect it.)

I decided to set the NetBIOS setting back to Default instead of Enable.  Even after a reboot, I was able to resolve the hostname properly.  Therefore, I don't think (in my case) that this option played any role in the solution

you're probably right. i assume playing around with those settings does work somehow by chance by producing a default node type different than what you have with dhcp.

after a little googling, it would appear that the most relevant setting is wins. disabling it should prevent windows from selecting the P (wins) node type and make it revert to either B (shoutcast) or H (hybrid) which should both work in your case. obviously such a setting may be incompatible with networks that require wins (such as likely your college)

---

i still think that sticking that same info in the DNS would be much simpler and safer. as things go, i don't see a reason to use either wins or broadcasts for name resolution.

best regards.

ps : if you stumble on a clean way to change node type from the command line (like maybe setting the wins server name to empty string or localhost using one of the above commands) or in your dhcp server, feel free to post, i'm interested

I haven't found a clean way to change it from the command line (including netsh and powershell, so far as I can tell), but I did find this (which is official information from Microsoft):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/903267