PROBLEM SOLVED

• Found the solution to the final part here:

• http://www.liberiangeek.net/2012/03/how-to-fix-failed-to-retrieve-share-list-from-server-in-ubuntu-12-04-11-10-when-file-sharing-with-windows/

• The previous changes which enabled me to see my Win7 machine (but still not access it) brought up a new error message:

• "Failed to Retrieve Share List from Server"

... which led me to that link, and that minor change to the /etc/samba/smb.conf file (putting bcast first) solved the problem and solved it for BOTH win7 machines, so I can now not only see both of them, but browse their shares

LESSON LEARNED

• so clearly the lesson learned here for me is that I cannot skip ahead, and this process of getting to my end goal is going to take some time, and I will have to make sure those Virtual Machines actually exist before I reference them anywhere

• thanks to those who tried to help

Here is the sequence:

• At first arp gets it's data (cache) from /proc/net/arp, Linux exposes it's ARP cache via the psuedo procfs filesystem's /proc/net/arp file for the userland. The kernel does not store any domain name, only IP addresses; this is analogous to using arp -n

• Now when you want arp to get you the hostnames, arp will simply follow the glibc's nsswitch configuration, precisely /etc/nsswitch.conf, and will try to get you the hostnames using the very sequence mentioned in that file e.g. an example is hosts: files mdns4 dns, in this case arp will:

  • Check the /etc/hosts file
  • Then mdns (Multicast DNS)
  • General DNS

  Just to note, if you see .local at the end of a domain name, then it's (presumably) resolved by mdns (unless you actually have such a TLD).