When I have my laptop connected to my wireless ap and decide some files are too large to transfer wirelessly, I plug the laptop into my switch for a faster connection. The problem is that when I switch from wireless to wired networking, I can no longer connect to my other pc's by hostname. The network browser still discovers the other pc's, but if you click on them it says it cannot find host. I can ping the hostname and get a response, and I can even connect to them by ip address, but until I reboot the pc with the lan connected and the wireless radio off, it will not allow me to use their hostname to connect to them. I have done a flush dns and have restarted the connection, but that doesn't work. Interestingly enough, when I am done on the wired lan, if I switch back to wireless, hostnames work again. I have done this precedure of switching network connections many times on this laptop with XP, Vista, and Ubuntu without issues, so this is the first time I have seen this. Another annoyance is that when I am connected by wire, it will name the connection after my wireless ssid. If I delete the network profile and reboot, connected only by cable, it will ask me if the network is a home or public, and I set it to home. The network is then named "Network". As soon as I switch to wireless, again choosing home, it will name the connection the same as my wireless ssid as vista does, but if I switch back to wire, it merges the network profile (my guess is because the network is the same), and then it again names the wired network after my access point's ssid. So if I am connected either by wireless or wired, it will name my network the access point's ssid.

Do you disconnect the wireless connection when you use the wired connection? I suspect that after you connect wired, the network cannot connect to DNS of the router. The flush DNS command can only clear the DNS cache on the local computer but do nothing on the router. How does it work if you set DNS server for the wired connection? When the issue occurs, you may enter ipconfig \all in command prompt and check if DNS server is connected .Arthur Xie - MSFT

Yes, I do disconnect the wireless connection. The internet connection is fine so the dns is working, its the local network that has host name problems. All I want to do is access the same share on another pc that I was connected to while I was on the wireless. After the switch, it will only let me connect to it again by ip address unless I reboot. Even if I open a window and type in \\host, it still says it cannot find host. The current workaround is to ping the host to find the ip address and then type in \\192.168.0.xxx. Logging out and then back in doesn't work either, I still have to reboot to fix it.

Are you logged in as admin levelwhat happens if you do a ipconfig /release ipconfig /renewDo you get an error??

Let me clarify. It works well on Internet, so it can connect with the Internet DNS server properly. In this case, we could access websites via domain names. However, there is another DNS it should connect. It is the DNS server for your local network. Usually if you have a router and enable the DNS server function in it, it will be default DNS server for the local network. With this DNS, you could access the computers in the local network with their computer names. Therefore, as you described, the problem may occurs on the local DNS, but not the Internet DNS. You may check the hosts file. Please refer the following website. Modify the Hosts file In the hosts file, ignore all the lines that start with *, and pay attention to other lines. Please only keep the line "localhost 127.0.0.1", delete others. However, if the above method does not help, please check if File Sharing is enabled on both computers. Please launch Control Panel\Network and Sharing Center, in the right pane click "Change advanced sharing settings" and check. If the hosts file is correct, the DSN issue can be from the router. I suggest that you try to upgrade the router firmware. The issue can also be caused by the driver that is not compatible with Windows 7 RC so it could not communicate with DNS host properly. Please upgrade the network adapter. If it does not help, we may need to wait for the manufacturer to release the new driver.Arthur Xie - MSFT

I noticed this problem in Windows 7, You can workaround this problem by using ipconfig commands. Open a command prompt and type ipconfig /release This command should release all existing network adapters and then you can issue the following command ipconfig /renew This should reestablish wired network connection for you.