[cvsnt] Network connectivity problems...

[Bo Berglund]

This is not a CVSNT issue, but I am hit by it when I test CVSNT
locally, so I post here in the hope that someone with networking
knowledge can help me out or direct me towards the correct solution.

I installed the new 1870 build to make some modules file testing on my
own pc. I use a previously completely unused repository on this server
for the tests. My cvsroot is :sspi:ALTAIR:/Test and the server is my
local PC with 512 Mb of RAM and plenty of hard disk. Networking is
standard 10 Mbps TP LAN. I have Windows XP-Pro with SP2 installed. The
XP firewall has been told to let port 2401 through.

When I checked out CVSROOT I noticed that CVS was real slow. I then
timed the update on CVSROOT to no less than 23 seconds!

So I went scouting and on a command prompt I use the command:
ping ALTAIR

This returns the surprising result:
c:\>ping ALTAIR
Pinging altair [0.3.0.4] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.

My IP address is definitely NOT 0.3.0.4! It is 192.168.0.130 on the
local LAN. I can ping ALTAIR from other computers on the LAN and they
show the expected behaviour with the correct address and result.

My LAN is DHCP:d from my ADSL broadband router (D-Link) and it has
been running like so for years.
I don't have an entry for ALTAIR in my HOSTS file and I don't have
0.3.0.4 there either.

If I edit my hosts file so it contains:
192.168.0.130  TESTPC
then I can successfully ping TESTPC (which is my own pc)

If I edit the HOSTS file like this
192.68.0.130  ALTAIR
then when I ping ALTAIR it returns the address 0.3.0.4 again!!!!
I thought that HOSTS overrides all DNS resolutions with TCP/IP

What the heck is going on? Is my own PC name somehow forbidden to use
in TCP/IP commands all of a sudden?

Here is output from netstat:

F:\CVSTESTING\CVSROOT>netstat /a

Active Connections

  Proto  Local Address          Foreign Address        State
  TCP    altair:smtp            altair:0               LISTENING
  TCP    altair:http            altair:0               LISTENING
  TCP    altair:epmap           altair:0               LISTENING
  TCP    altair:https           altair:0               LISTENING
  TCP    altair:microsoft-ds    altair:0               LISTENING
  TCP    altair:1030            altair:0               LISTENING
  TCP    altair:pptp            altair:0               LISTENING
  TCP    altair:3389            altair:0               LISTENING
  TCP    altair:6101            altair:0               LISTENING
  TCP    altair:microsoft-ds    localhost:1042         ESTABLISHED
  TCP    altair:1033            altair:0               LISTENING
  TCP    altair:1042            localhost:microsoft-ds  ESTABLISHED
  TCP    altair:1048            altair:0               LISTENING
  TCP    altair:1576            localhost:1577         ESTABLISHED
  TCP    altair:1577            localhost:1576         ESTABLISHED
  TCP    altair:9999            altair:0               LISTENING
  TCP    altair:netbios-ssn     altair:0               LISTENING
  TCP    altair:netbios-ssn     192.168.0.131:1275     ESTABLISHED

I know for sure that earlier this week I could work properly with
CVSNT new versions for testing without this very strange problem.

So does anyone here have an idea where I should start looking for the
reason that on my own computer the name resolution to ALTAIR results
in this bogus IP all of a sudden while at the same time the other
computers on the LAN can get my real IP and successfully ping me?

Any help appreciated!


/Bo
(Bo Berglund, developer in Sweden)