Problem with hosts file- Can you tell me why?

[stephenmbell]

I have a network of about 700 windows xp pro machines. They are all named PC100, PC101, PC102, etc.... PC700....

Each of these machines has a file on it, that is specific to that machine. The file is used for a piece of software to process its data. The reason that the file contains machine specific information is because it has a path in it.

Example:

PC100 and PC101 both use software located on PC101 to process some information. There is a file on both PC100 and PC101 that has the following in it:

process A: \\pc101\c\software\

process B: \\pc101\c\software\

process C: \\pc101\c\software\

This gets to be quite cumbersome when we need to add or change additional processes. We need to generate roughly 350 files (specific to each "server" desktop).

I got to thinking about it - and I figured that I could fix this with a hosts file.

If each of my locations has 2 PC's, I could create a hosts file on the machine like this:

Location 1 would be

172.17.100.1 PC100

172.17.100.1 PC1

172.17.100.2 PC101

172.17.100.2 PC2

Location 2 would be

172.17.100.5 PC103

172.17.100.5 PC1

172.17.100.6 PC104

172.17.100.6 PC2

Location 3 would be

172.17.100.9 PC105

172.17.100.9 PC1

172.17.100.10 PC106

172.17.100.10 PC2

Having the 2 names for PC1 and PC2 will not matter because this host name will only be used on their internal network (LAN). The PC103, 104, etc etc will be used for the WAN.

PC101 cannot see PC103 because they are in different locations - and we do not allow traffic between locations.

I set this up, and I could ping the machines using both names.

My problem is:

If I am on PC101 and I go to

Start --> Run --> \\pc101\c\software I can get there no problem

However, if I go to

Start --> Run --> \\pc2\c\software I get prompted for credentials

I have tried this on multiple machines, including my own desktop and I get the same thing.

Do you know why?

Thanks

sb

[dubsdj]

Have you tried taking PC2 off the domain and resetting the computer account then re joining? same issue...?

If its on the domain correctly it shouldnt be asking for credentials if you are a domain admin trying to access the PC... seems very strange.