[Solved] Windows 7 cannot resolve local hostname/DNS, Internet names are OK

I have searched the Internet, and this forum, far and wide, and haven't found many that have this problem, so I think it might be something stupid I overlooked or something to that effect.

Machine Specs:
Fujitsu p1620 (netbook sized convertible laptop)
Intel Core 2 Duo @1.2ghz
2GB RAM
Windows 7 Pro 32 bit, I installed
Atheros AR5006EXS Wifi
All drivers have come from the Fugitsu website, and all were intended for Windows 7

Misc Background:
I keep the machine mostly updated, and as of right now, there are no updates waiting. there are 17 updates. I am installing them as I write this.

I do not use a 3rd party firewall, and as far as I can tell I have disabled the Windows firewall (I completely disabled it while troubleshooting this problem). I do not have any resident anti-malware program running. I do have Dropbox, a VNC server, and DAEMON Tools Lite running, in addition to a few driver apps (video card, biometric reader).

I am using Windows to manage wifi and not the Atheros client utility.

Problem:
My problem is that windows explorer, the command line, a VNC client, etc.. cannot make use of another computer's (on the local network) name to connect. ie ping alveolatehollow (one of my servers) returns "ping could not find host xxx. please check the name and try again." This is my only windows 7 machine, and this used to work. All of my other machines (running win2000 server, 2003 or XP, and an android phone) do not have this same problem. If I ping www.google.com, I can get a reply from an IP address. Yahoo and google come back as different IP addresses, so I'm pretty sure Comcast DNS hijacking isnt the issue here (it would come back as only the one IP if that were true). My web browser (Firefox, up to date) can access Internet pages fine by name, but not the local webserver by name. In all services that have this problem, I can use the IP address of the machine and do what I want.

What I have done to try to fix this:
I have looked at my hosts file, I only have the loopback in there.
Disabled homegroups.
Disabled ipv6 for my wifi adapter.
Rebooted.
Ran the windows troubleshooter (wasnt sure what to expect, so I was hoping it was smart)
Asked a few people I know who have windows 7, they've never seen this behaviour.
Searched on google. I was not able to find anyone with the same problem, so I think its something small I have overlooked, or maybe haven contracted some malware.
Made sure the firewall was disabled. Then found out that there was a lot more to disabling the firewall than just unchecking a box.
Made sure that no DNS servers were defined in the TCP/IP properties (adapter is set for DHCP).

Side note: I had to disable power management on this wifi adapter b/c in Windows 7 it would have dropouts (I had XP table ton this machine before I upgraded it and did not have the same problem).

Side note #2: the free windows XP VM, XP Mode, can resolve the name just fine when I tie it directly to the network adapter, but not if I use NAT.

Has anyone here seen this problem or know where to start to try to fix it?

*update 12-04-2010*

Ok, still having the same problem, but I have a better description now.

ipconfig /flushdns does not help. nslookup also does not find any hostname that I use, and it connects to Comcasts (my ISP) DNS server. NetBIOS over tcpip is set to auto based on the dns setting, and is enabled in ipconfi /all.

I jumped onto other networks with windows 7 machines, and while I can't ping their hostnames, I can see the Win7 machine in windows explorer.

Try flushing the DNS cache, from a cmd prompt with admin rights execute ipconfig<space>/flushdns

The older operating systems like Windows XP uses Netbios broadcasts to resolve netbios computer names. It might be disabled on your Windows 7.

Do an ipconfig /all and check for Netbios enabled/disabled.

Ok, so I've done a couple of things and wanted to update the board. I have uninstalled the wifi adapter (in device manager), and used the Fujitsu atheros driver that is posted. I was not able to find a driver on the atheros site (seems weird to me, anyone know any different?).

My girlfriends machine running windows 7 also pops up in the network view. I am currently about to try the different wifi adapter.

Should this thread be moved to the networking section maybe? I thought it was a windows 7 issue, but maybe its just a networking thing.

I am inclined to believe that, BUT:

Then how did this work before? It wasn't a 1 time deal: for several months it worked and then crapped out.

Why do the other machines on my network (including the other win7 box) do what I am trying to do with them?

I'm confused. In your OP you say "This is my only Windows 7 machine", now you say "including the other Win7 box".

Anyway, you're talking about IP - pinging, nslookup, /flushdns, etc., and you say that your computer is set to look at an external DNS server. There is no way that an external server can know anything about your internal IP addresses as they are on a non-routable network (192.168.1.0). If you want DNS resolution to find addresses for machines on your internal network you must have a DNS server on that internal network that your computers look at. That will normally be your router.

Your other computers are seeing each other via NetBIOS, which is a broadcast protocol and doesn't need a name server (although a WINS server can help). I'm sure that with a bit of messing about you could get your Windows 7 machine to work this way too (although you still won't be able to ping, etc.) - but it's much easier just to set your router as a DNS server and use IP only.

Edit: You could try going into the Advanced Properties for IP4 for your adapter, go to the "WINS" tab and click "Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP". That may (or may not) solve the problem.

I am pretty sure at this point that I am dealing with a netBIOS problem, and nothing to do with DNS. At the time of the OP, I was not sure which one I am dealing with.

nbtstat -a <hostname> gives me the following:

nbtstat -r gives me

At this point, I definitely think that for some reason this machine is not resolving netBIOS names. I've looked through the help file for nbtstat and ran a few different options. I've also scoured the net, finding tidbits to things to check. I still haven't ruled out malware, so I tried hijackthis (log below), but nothing seemed fishy there. I checked to make sure that the DNS service is running (I know its not DNS, but that was a suggestion on another thread). Since windows 7 doesn't have a "repair" option like XP does, I found out what that repair button did and tried that too c/o:

http://www.sevenforums.com/network [...] ork-2.html

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /registerdns
netsh interface ip delete arpcache
nbtstat -R

I do not use a 3rd party firewall, and I have disabled the Windows firewall, and also disabled the advanced firewall to the best of my ability. At this point, it might be a good idea for a mod to move this thread to the networking section. Or I can re-compile my post and post it there since we have made SOME headway on it.

Nope, haven't found a fix yet. It is related to netBIOS rather than DNS, and a lot of advice seems to be relating to DNS. I don't think the two mix at any point, so I'm thoroughly cornfroozled. The nbtstat is a good tool, but it's not fixing anything on my machine, so I'm not sure where to go next :-/

Ive started looking into malware, but haven't ran very many utilites to detect it. I think I will try enabling the firewall and see if that changes anything.

DUDE THAT"S AWESOME!!!!! IT WORKED!!!

How did you find that? In looking through the text of the article, nothing there seems to correspond to what was happening. I have never found the workgroup list(s) to be reliable, so I would have never thought that a PC not showing up there to be important.