Networking Problem - Help!

[mnfesq]

This is most likely NOT a hackintosh problem but I could not find any solutions on Mac forums.  I saw one post of a mac user with the same problem but no fix was posted.

 

The problem is that I cannot connect to computers on my network by their computer name.  I CAN connect to them by their IP address.  I see the connected server names in the sidebar in Finder but when I click on any of those, the connection fails.  If I use Finder->Go->Connect to Server and enter the IP address of the computer I want to connect to, it works.  I have added all of the IP addresses of the other computers on the network to my favorites in the Connect to Server window but this is not a fix, just a workaround.  Additionally, if I add the IP address of a computer on the network in System Preferences->Network->Wi-Fi->Advanced->WINS->WINS Servers, I can connect to that one computer by its computer name or IP address, but only that one computer.  If I add more IP addresses, only the top one works.

 

I am running 10.9.3 13D38.  I first noticed this when I installed 13D33.  Before that, all was working fine.  (I have made assorted tweaks and changes that I never documented so I don't know if these could have had any impact but I doubt it.  They were mostly audio-related.)  I have 2 installations of Mavericks on my laptop (HP Envy 17t-3200 CTO) and the other one, 13D21, does not have this problem.  Both installations have the same computer name and network settings.

 

This cannot be a firewall issue because, if it were, I would not be able to connect via IP address.  It appears to be something in the nature of a problem with name translation, which I think is controlled by Bonjour, but I'm not really sure.  Because the other computers (all windows computers) are seen by my laptop, I know that bonjour is correctly installed on those computers.  Also, if that was the problem, I would not be able to connect with my other installation.  (For what it's worth, the problem installation is located on my SSD which is only about a month old.  The other installation that works fine is on my hard drive which I have had for years.)  Could this be UUID-related?  I'm really stumped.

 

 

[mnfesq]

I was not able to solve this problem and find a fix for it.  However, I wiped my SSD clean, did a fresh install of Mavericks, restored everything but computer and network settings from a Time Machine backup, then installed 10.9.2, 10.9.3 (13D21) and 10.9.3 (13D43).  Network name translation is working fine which means that I can connect to the servers listed in Finder's sidebar and can also connect to my wireless printers.  I can also now run a server app called Airplayit, which allows me to stream videos from my laptop to my iPhone.  It's great having network connectivity again.