I have set up a Mac Mini on our network with a static IP and pointed the DNS servers to our local DNS servers. Everything on our network is in a reverse-lookup list, so I can ping ad01 from any pc, and get our primary active directory controller's IP address. This works on every PC in the house, and a couple of the apples. Most of the apples, despite having the correct DNS servers, simply cannot ping local machines unless I ping them by IP. I am able to browse the network and see computer names, and I can use finder to "Connect To" servers by name, but because DNS entries aren't being delivered to the machine, I can't browse the local intranet nor can I bind it to our domain. Any tips?
Leopard or Tiger? I've had very poor luck with local DNS lookups and such in OS X so far. While I don't have a local domain, it doesn't seem happy with the standard WORKGROUP approach either. AFAIK, it's a known bug that's yet to be fixed. It plays fine with local IP addresses, but the networking protocols just seem to be displeased with Windows and as such think it's okay to ignore it.
It is the latest update of Tiger. I know there has to be a way to make it work, we've got other apples on the network that authenticate against our active directory domain, but this one just doesn't want to do it.
W00T! By default, Apple uses .local for Bonjour in the same way Windows uses .local as the default local domain. (As well as some Linux admins) The problem is, OS X will not query the DNS server for .local items because it wants to look over Bonjour instead. The solution? In the Network settings dialog there is a field "Search Domains", simply add domains separated by commas you want it to use DNS to search for, including local! So, my field consists of: "local, business.local" although simply "local" should be sufficient. WooHoo! Now it can ping local servers just fine, and it binds to the AD controller!
Thank you for being one of the rare kind souls that posts the solution Maybe I can use that to fix my own networking woes. Although I think I can conclusively say it's either a bum card or driver at this point. edit - WELL DONE, SIR! Leopard's reluctance to see my fileserver without manually mounting it by IP has immediately disappeared.
I cannot stand people who search for weeks to find an answer only to find it, apply it, then forget it. (I also search my previous posts on bit for other IT troubleshooting things I've learned.) happy it helped!
