How to telnet a computer name

telnet

I have a computer in the network with computer name: XP-201112453 Without knowing the IP, how can I telnet to access this computer?

I tried:

telnet XP-201112453

but terminal gives me "nodename nor servname provided, or not known" as if the syntax is wrong. I search over the name and only find telneting an IP address. Is it possible to telnet a computer just by knowing the computer name alone?

[EDIT]
Telnet from a Mac OS X to access a Windows XP machine. Because IP changes regularly, I would want to find a way to access it by its username or computer name.

Best Answer

You can telnet to another machine using its name, but the name should be resolvable.

If it is defined in your hosts file, the found IP mapping will be used.

If it is resolvable via DNS server, it should be OK also.

If it is a netbios name (it appears so), you need to have winbind package installed (I am assuming Linux OS here). Under Windows, resolving netbios names should not be an issue.

Under Linux OS, you can check the order (priority) of these lookup sources in the config file /etc/nsswitch.conf. Look for the line that starts with hosts:.

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