Thanks RTM. (Is this for Read The Man-pages?)
I'll take a look at the Sun Docs for more on the ipnodes.
As far as how the Win and NT machines resolve names, I am pretty sure they resolve names via DNS. However, I modified the HOSTS file on a couple of my Win2K machines, and added in the workstation_2 name with its associated IP address. I then re-imported the HOSTS file. After doing this I was able to ping the workstation_2 name as well as its IP address. These machines essentially can resolve the workstation_2 name now. I think this would deduce my problem to a Windows resolution issue versus a Solaris resolution issue. However, I am still not sure how the other workstations are getting their names resolved because they are not referenced in the HOSTS file...
On the Solaris Workstations in the /etc/nsswitch.conf files:
for hosts:
hosts: nis [NOTFOUND=return] files dns
Now I know this is different than what I have seen in other postings, (hosts: files dns), but this is what is in all of the workstations' nsswitch.conf files. I would think this could not be the problem.
Cheers,
medmonson