The mysteries of Windows DNS [duplicate]

I believe that nslookup opens a winsock connection on the DNS port and issues a query, whereas ping uses the DNS Client service. You could try and stop this service and see whether this makes a difference.

Some commands that will reinitialize various network states :

Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults : netsh winsock reset catalog
Reset TCP/IP stack to installation defaults : netsh int ip reset reset.log
Flush DNS resolver cache : ipconfig /flushdns
Renew DNS client registration and refresh DHCP leases : ipconfig /registerdns
Flush routing table : route /f (this will remove all your gateways until you restart!)

Try ping with hostname followed by a dot. So instead of ping wolfman use ping wolfman.

That should get you resolving without having to do workarounds with hosts file, etc.