dig works, ping doesn't

Not sure where to post this question... but I have a DNS name resolution problem with OS X and it's driving me nuts. I'm trying to PING a host on my local network using the DNS host name, NOT the IP address. A ping by IP address does work however. Also, I DO NOT WANT TO ADD THE NAME TO THE HOSTS FILE. This defeats the purpose of DHCP (the D means Dynamic)...

The lookupd configuration looks correct, dig and nslookup operate properly but PING does not. The name of the local host I'm trying to ping is 'files'.

Here is a relevant terminal session (if there's a better place to put this, PLEASE let me know):

mymachine:~ cliff$ lookupd -configuration

ConfigSource: file://etc/lookupd
LookupOrder: Cache NI DS
MaxIdleServers: 4
MaxIdleThreads: 2
MaxThreads: 64
TimeToLive: 43200
Timeout: 30
ValidateCache: YES
ValidationLatency: 15
_config_name: Global Configuration

LookupOrder: Cache FF DNS NI DS
_config_name: Host Configuration

LookupOrder: Cache FF NI DS
_config_name: Service Configuration

LookupOrder: Cache FF NI DS
_config_name: Protocol Configuration

LookupOrder: Cache FF NI DS
_config_name: Rpc Configuration

TimeToLive: 60
ValidateCache: NO
_config_name: Group Configuration

TimeToLive: 300
ValidateCache: NO
_config_name: Initgroup Configuration

LookupOrder: Cache FF DNS NI DS
_config_name: Network Configuration

mymachine:~ cliff$ ping files
ping: cannot resolve files: Unknown host
mymachine:~ cliff$ ping files.local
ping: cannot resolve files.local: Unknown host
mymachine:~ cliff$ ping files.localdomain
ping: cannot resolve files.localdomain: Unknown host
mymachine:~ cliff$
mymachine:~ cliff$ dig files

; <<>> DiG 9.3.4 <<>> files
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 16769
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;files. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
files. 0 IN A 192.168.10.40

;; Query time: 2 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.10.1#53(192.168.10.1)
;; WHEN: Mon Aug 6 11:31:23 2007
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 39

mymachine:~ cliff$ nslookup
> files
Server: 192.168.10.1
Address: 192.168.10.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: files
Address: 192.168.10.40
> exit

Any ideas? I've tried creating LookupOrder entries for every possible lookupd setting in /etc/lookupd but to no avail.

This is extraordinarily frustrating and given the darwin roots of OSX this should be very very easy...

Cliff.

 

thanks for the suggestion... but that's not the problem... anyone else??

 

anyone?