I don't know much about networking right now I have 2 computers on the same network, both working fine, with internet access. They can ping eachother. I have webservers setup on both, *but* they can only access eachother using their numerical IP addresses. Hostnames do not work. For example, I can only get access by browsing to "http://192.168.1.101". going to "http://jimpc1/" will not work. This is the same for both PCs. also when i do a "ping -a" in DOS, it doesn't resolve the hostname, it just shows me the numerical IP. am I missing something? connection setup is: PC > Wireless Broadband Router > Westell DSL Modem > Internet. one pc is desktop/cable, other is laptop/wireless. both have brand new installs of xp pro SP3 -Jim

In a so small environment I would suggest to simply add the ip address and the hostname to your local hosts file. The file hosts is located in \windows\system32\drivers\etc. It's the hosts file without extension. Let's assume that the first pc's hostname is jirnpc1 with ip address 192.168.1.101 and second pc's hostname is jirnpc2 with ip address 192.168.1.102. Edit the file hosts at jirnpc1 and add the following line: 192.168.1.102 jimpc2 Save the file and exit the text editor. Edit the file hosts at jirnpc2 and add the following line: 192.168.1.101 jimpc1 Save the file and exit the text editor. And now, try to ping jirnpc1 from jirnpc2 and vice versa. Please send a reply, if you solved the problem !!!

Paul what other optios do you have here, if yor using apache web server you can add virtual hosts iif i remember right, so what other options do you have for a peer - to -peer setup?

In that case, you have to use a DNS server, that can be configured. So the clients have to be configured to use this DNS server, to be able to resolve the names properly. Please send a reply, if you solved the problem !!!