DNS problem, nslookup works, ping doesn't

I am setting up a development server in my flat. I have set up an Ubuntu DNS server on it and have added the zone weddinglist (just weddinglist - no TLD. It's just an internal domain.)

This works fine on my Ubuntu laptop.

On all my Windows PCs (Vista and XP) I get the following from the command prompt:

C:\Users\Giles Roadnight>nslookup weddinglist
Server:  UnKnown
Address:  192.168.0.40

Name:    weddinglist
Address:  192.168.0.41


C:\Users\Giles Roadnight>ping 192.168.0.41

Pinging 192.168.0.41 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.0.41: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.41: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.41: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.41: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.41:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\Users\Giles Roadnight>ping weddinglist
Ping request could not find host weddinglist. Please check the name and try again.

My ipconfig:

C:\Users\Giles Roadnight>ipconfig -all

Windows IP Configuration

   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Giles-Desktop
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Marvell Yukon 88E8001/8003/8010 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : **-**-**-**-**-**
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::f179:680f:f313:5448%8(Preferred)
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.5(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.40
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

I am pretty sure that I have the DNS set up OK as the nslookup is OK but I can't ping and I can't access webpages at weddinglist.

How can I make ping work for the Windows PCs?

It's possible that the Windows internal resolver is adding '.local' to the domain name because there's no dots in it. nslookup wouldn't do that.

To verify this possiblity, install 'Wireshark' (previously aka Ethereal) on your client machine and observe any DNS request packets leaving it when you run the ping command.

OK, further investigation on my own XP machine at home reveals that for single label names (i.e. "foo", or "foo.") the system doesn't use DNS at all, and instead uses NBNS (NetBios Name Service).

Using a hint found at http://www.chicagotech.net/netforums/viewtopic.php?t=1476, I found that I was able to force DNS lookups for single label domains by putting a single entry reading "." in the "Append these DNS suffixes (in order)" in the "Advanced TCP/IP settings" dialog

I had this problem occasionally when using a multi-label name ie test.internal

The solution for me was to stop/start the dnscache on my windows 7 machine. Open a console as administrator and type

net stop dnscache
net start dnscache

then sigh and look for a way to get a Mac as your principal desktop.

I have the same issue with IIS running on my home server, on the client machine a command like ipconfig /flushdns usually solves the problem.

I had the same issue. As pointed out by other answers ping and nslookup use different mechanisms to lookup an ip.

Chances are you are trying to ping a machine not on the same domain. When you ping the fully qualified name of the server this should then work.

nslookup works:

PS C:\Users\Administrator> nslookup nuget
Server:  ad-01.docs.com
Address:  192.168.10.20

Name:    nuget.docs.com
Address:  192.168.10.17

Ping fails:

PS C:\Users\Administrator> ping nuget
Ping request could not find host nuget. Please check the name and try again.

Ping works, using FQDN:

PS C:\Users\Administrator> ping nuget.docs.com

Pinging nuget.docs.com [192.168.70.17] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.10.17: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=127
Reply from 192.168.10.17: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=127
Reply from 192.168.10.17: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=127
Reply from 192.168.10.17: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=127

Ping statistics for 192.168.10.17:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 2ms, Average = 1ms

To fix this you will need to alter the DNS setting for the machine and add the DNS suffix to lookup.

1. Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections
2. Network adapter -> properties
3. IPV4 -> Properties
4. General tab -> Advanced
5. DNS Tab
6. Select "Append these DNS suffixes (in order)"
7. Add the required domain names
8. Disable, then enable your network adapter (don't do this on a VM, you'll loose your connection, instead try 'ipconfig /renew')