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I am working in an IT office where I have to do remote file transfers and software upgrades over the network. So before I start working on a computer, I ping the computer name (e.g., AB395729) in command prompt.

When it works, I get a response like this:

Reply from <ip address>: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=127

And some ping statistics when it's done.

When a computer is not turned on or somehow not properly connected to the network, I get a response like this:

Request timed out.

However, sometimes I instead get a response like this:

Ping request could not find host AB395728. Please check the name and try again.

I'm not as knowledgeable in the networking side of things, so I'm not sure how to proceed with this. This is definitely the name of the computer. Is that type of response happening because the computer has not been connected to our network in a long time?

I'd love to know more about how to interpret these responses (and what I might do to get past this). Thanks!

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  • Does the second error message also appear for computers that are connected to your network and powered on?
    – aschipfl
    Apr 25, 2019 at 14:14

1 Answer 1

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In order to "ping" a remote computer, your computer must first resolve the name "AB3955728" to an IP address. In most systems, that is the function of DNS (Domain Name Service). Think of it like a telephone directory, where you look up a number, based on a name.

In your case, it appears that there is no DNS entry for the target computer "AB3955728". So the Ping program can't resolve the name to an address. That is what the error message is trying to tell you.

As to why there's no entry for this computer, you will have to ask the system administrators. Without knowing more about your network, we'd just be guessing.

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  • Most of the time the issue is with laptops, so my thought was that maybe the users either only use them at home (so they never connect to our network) or just haven't turned them on in awhile. Is that a possibility? I at least reached out to the users to ask them explicitly to turn them on and connect them to the network.
    – q-compute
    Apr 23, 2019 at 13:05
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    Without knowing how your network is configured, we can't say. Please edit your question to include information about your Windows domain, DNS, and how users connect to the network remotely. If you're unsure about this, talk to the system administrators.
    – Ron Trunk
    Apr 23, 2019 at 13:44

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