VNC connect via PC name

[treehouse786]

hi guys, i have trying to get TightVNC to connect to other machines in my house via the pc name but it does not connect, getting a 'cant connect to server' message, if however i type in the IP address instead of the pc name then it works. this happens with both TightVNC and UltraVNC

both computers are on a workgroup and not a domain and are win7 ultimate using the same router

i have not forwarded any ports as its on the local network and the fact that they connect with the local ip's shows it can work but why the hell cant i connect via pc name?

any ideas?

[Cudni]

is the master browser service running? checked fw is not blocking anything/trusted zone

[treehouse786]

hi Cudni, yes all firewall are off and the service is defo running as i can connect to it via IP

edit- strange thing tho, if i switch my dns provider to my routers IP then i can connect via name, if i switch it back to Open DNS then it does not connect by name (IP only)

why would this be? especially when you consider that the router is still acting as a DHCP no matter what dns i use (the dns is not set in router but in each machines network adapter settings)

[treehouse786]

anyone?

[treehouse786]

RESOLVED! (i should have known better than asking for network related help on a security forum, anyway find the solution below)


after many hours of testing i finally found a way to make this ridiculous problem go away (its ridiculous because this problem never affected other DNS providers like google DNS)

the reason why local names never resolved with opendns enabled is because opendns WILL resolve all queries even if they DONT truly resolve so netbios wont be used hence the non resolution of local machine names.

FIX- run ipconfig /all and find the Primary DNS Suffix. write that down and then login to your opendns dashboard, add a VPN exception with the contents being what you wrote down for the Primary DNS Suffix value, restart system. local name resolution should now work.