Can ping IP addresses but not hostnames

[DolphinComputers]

Hi, I am new to IPSEC and setup a test lab from my house to my office. At my house is a few workstations (no server) and the office I setup one Windows server 2012 (Not a domain controller) The tunnel is setup, connected and working and I can ping the IP address of the server and access the shared folders via the IP address but I am unable to either ping or search the hostname of the server.

Both locations have an untangled box that serve as the DHCP server. I am pretty sure its a DNS setting but I am not sure where to change it on the untangled routers.

Any help is appreciated.

[sky-knight]

Name resolution isn't magic, it's a process. If you do not have a DNS server fully configured and DNS resolvers properly configured to use it, you cannot resolve names.

If your machine cannot resolve a name via DNS, it will attempt to look for the name via network broadcast. Network broadcasts do not pass the first router. So, you cannot resolve names, because you don't have a working mechanism to do so.

Kudos for getting the Windows firewall to cooperate though, that thing is a pain by default so you got the hard part done! But what you're experiencing is by design, unless you have a working DNS infrastructure. And if you go through the headache of deploying DNS, you may as well deploy AD because you just did the hard part.

Now if you just want a few names to work, just stuff them into the DNS tab on the local Untangle with the proper remote IP address. Things will fire up then via name, just make sure the remote addresses are static or reserved. But if you want it to be dynamic to all stations and always be updated with out extra work, you need a real DNS server.

[donhwyo]

You might also add the dns server on the other side of the tunnel. And add iprange.in-addr.arpa so reverse lookups work.

[lindashift]

You have to set up your server and allocate a dedicated IP to if before you can try to use a domain name to ping for it.