Newbie SMB question

When trying to connect to a shared folder on a windows 7 or xp computer from a MFP (copier/scanner/printer) why would I be able to connect to it using the hosts IP address but not computer name?

I see some computers I can use the computer name and some will only work with the IP address and I don't know why.

Do you need to enable netbios over TCP/IP on your client machines?

Do you run a DNS server?

Or a WINS server? DNS is the right answer, though.

The last example of this I encountered was a workgroup no server using a linksys type router type thing.

They had the linksys address for the gateway and the dns.

I could connect between computers using the computer name but I can't connect to a computer from the MFP using a computer name.

I read yesterday that linksys on some of their routers have exactly that problem. The router use itself as the first DNS and for some reason manage to get a wrong IP-address for some domain names. I don't know if that is the same problem encountered here though.

Most consumer routers have terrible DNS support. They ought to publish DHCP leases into the DNS server, but they rarely seem to do this reliably. Which is why I use OpenWRT and run a full-blown BIND installation.

Your copier/scanner/printer should have a field where you can indicate what the DNS/WINS servers are in your network. In most cases, that's enough to address the issue. If you already did that, then such DNS/WINS servers are not correctly mapping IPs to Hostnames.