gethostbyaddr() to resolve windows hostname

Hi,

I am writing a small echo client in C on GNU/Linux system. The echo
server is on Windows System. I am trying to use gethostbyname to
resolve the Windows Hostname.
But I am not able to do so.

The name is not being resolved. I am able to use my application only
with IP Address.

Let me explain my environment:

Router-----------windows(echo server)
|
|
|
Linux(echo client)


Both windows and linux systems have obtained ip address via dhcp from
the Router.

my echo client is running on linux system.

i am able to use ip address. but my concern is i need to use the
hostname as it is dhcp enabled and the ip address keeps on changing.

the router shows the windows hostname - ip address mapping.

windows-pc 192.168.10.100

but when i try to use gethostbyname() with the "windows-pc" as the
argument for hostname, it can't resolve to the ip address.


am i missing something?
Is there any different function that i should use?


Also the windows pc is in a workgroup named "HARDWARE".

One more point is that I am able to run the "scp" command on my linux
system to access the windows pc

#scp windows-pc

The point i am trying to make is that scp is able to resolve the
windows-pc name into an ip address but my program can't. so i suspect
is there any different function call.

please provide me suggestions.

Thanks

Best Regards,
allug

allug4me DeleteThis @gmail.com said:
>I am writing a small echo client in C on GNU/Linux system. The echo
>server is on Windows System. I am trying to use gethostbyname to
>resolve the Windows Hostname.
>But I am not able to do so.
>
>The name is not being resolved. I am able to use my application only
>with IP Address.
>
>Let me explain my environment:
>
>Router-----------windows(echo server)
>|
>|
>|
>Linux(echo client)
>
>
>Both windows and linux systems have obtained ip address via dhcp from
>the Router.

.... ok, and you want host names. For that, you should have DNS server
running (and actually a dynamic DNS, updated by your routers DHCP
server when it hands out addresses).

I don't think ADSL routers generally provide this kind of functionality.

What might work would be to configure your router to assign fixed
addresses for clients, and place the address-name relationships on
/etc/hosts on the Linux machine (unless you want to run a full-blown
DNS server there).
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