Networking – Can’t Ping Windows Hostname

hostnamenetworkingpingsamba

I can neither ping nor access Windows 7 Samba shares through the hostname.

As recommended at (inter alia) can not ping by host name for some computers, I have edited
/etc/nsswitch.conf
to include

hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] wins dns mdns4

I have also restarted services as suggested, yet no go.

When attempting to ping my Windows 7 machine, the output is:

ping: <hostname>: Name or service not known

Advice as to how best to resolve Windows hostnames on Ubuntu will be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Best Answer

It turned out to be a firewall problem.

Solution as suggested at https://fitzcarraldoblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/11/prevent-linux-firewalls-interfering-with-samba-commands-in-a-home-network-that-uses-broadcast-netbios-name-resolution/

  1. iptables -t raw -A OUTPUT -p udp -m udp --dport 137 -j CT --helper netbios-ns
  2. Add the following lines to the end of the file /etc/ufw/before.rules
    # The following is needed to enable Samba commands to
    # work properly for broadcast NetBIOS name resolution
    #
    # raw table rules
    *raw
    :OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
    -F OUTPUT
    -A OUTPUT -p udp -m udp --dport 137 -j CT --helper netbios-ns
    COMMIT
  1. Restart UFW!
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