From: Timothy Madden terminatorul@gmail.com
The router has the 'DNS relay' option enabled, and all 7 computers use the router as the DNS server, which in turn will forward DNS requests to the ISP DNS server. That way I can understand that simple, plain, default DNS is not enough for my boxes to see each-other's names.
Can't you add local entries to the router...?
What is the way to have all computers in my simple network know each other by name ?
Setup a local DNS (if your router cannot do it). Or simply add them to each /etc/hosts For 7 computers, I would just use /etc/hosts... Unless you plan to rename them every 5 minutes.
Also, I hear Linux does not have, by default, a cache of resolved names (like Windows does), and I find that to be a sad thing.
Do not be sad! At least with CentOS 5, you can install the 'caching-nameserver' package.
JD