Windows XP Pro SP3 Cannot ping our DNS Server with DNS name

Question

I have an old Windows XP SP3 computer and we recently purchased Sophos Endpoint Protection. One of the things I noticed before I installed the program was that the computer cannot ping the DNS name of the server. It can connect to the server through windows explorer with the IP address but not the computer name. The server is also the DNS server and DHCP server but the computer is static.

Things I have tried:

1. NSlookup which wont find anything on any machine I try to run it on

2. Ipconfig /flushdns

3. Arp -d *

4. Deleted the DNS record for the computer out of the server for both forward and reverse

5. ipconfig /registerdns which did create a new entry on the server

6. rebooting machine

I have a few other issues on other computers that cannot reach Sophos updates but those machines are able to connect just fine through explorer so I am working with Sophos on that. This is just very strange.

    Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
    (C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

    C:\Documents and Settings\custom4>ipconfig /all

    Windows IP Configuration

    Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : PC-59
    Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . : companyname.local
    Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
    IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
    WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
    DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : companyname.local

    Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

    Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
    Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connecti
    on
    Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-16-76-00-00-00
    Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
    IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.38
    Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
    Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
    DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.3
                                        192.168.0.7
    Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.3

    C:\Documents and Settings\custom4>

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\custom4>nslookup server-dc2
*** Can't find server name for address 192.168.0.7: Non-existent domain
*** Can't find server name for address 192.168.0.3: Non-existent domain
*** Default servers are not available
Server:  UnKnown
Address:  192.168.0.7

DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Request to UnKnown timed-out

C:\Documents and Settings\custom4>nslookup server-file
*** Can't find server name for address 192.168.0.7: Non-existent domain
*** Can't find server name for address 192.168.0.3: Non-existent domain
*** Default servers are not available
Server:  UnKnown
Address:  192.168.0.7

DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Request to UnKnown timed-out

C:\Documents and Settings\custom4>nslookup computer-66 192.168.0.120
*** Can't find server name for address 192.168.0.120: No response from server
Server:  UnKnown
Address:  192.168.0.120

DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Request to UnKnown timed-out

C:\Documents and Settings\custom4>

C:\Documents and Settings\custom4>nslookup server-dc2 192.168.0.3
*** Can't find server name for address 192.168.0.3: Non-existent domain
Server:  UnKnown
Address:  192.168.0.3

DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Request to UnKnown timed-out

C:\Documents and Settings\custom4>

Answer 1

After some additional troubleshooting the issue was resolved by putting the correct DNS suffix to the network setup. As the DNS requests were working with FQDNs and not with host name only - it seemed that it could be the problem. Great information from the OP provided in the chat.