Can't access RPi from some computers via hostname

Question

I have a headless Raspberry Pi set up in a WiFi network and need to connect to it using its hostname.

On some computers in the same network this works just as intended with the command ssh pi@raspberrypi. But on other devices, the hostname is not recognized. I also can not ping the Raspberry Pi from those devices. Using the IP instead of the hostname works on all devices and for both ping and ssh.

Why does one device get a response from raspberrypi while others do not? Is this actually a problem with the Pi or with the router?

Answer 1

Windows is always going to be an outlier; I can't help you with your Windows issues, except to offer this. I can share some general information relevant to your RPi that might help:

Wrt your RPi, there are two things to check/verify:

1. /etc/hostname Under most circumastances, it should have a single line with the name of the host; e.g.:

$ cat /etc/hostname
raspberrypi3b

2. /etc/hosts

$ cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1   localhost
::1     localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
ff02::1     ip6-allnodes
ff02::2     ip6-allrouters

127.0.1.1   raspberrypi3b raspberrypi3b.local

Note the last line in particular: 127.0.1.1. At least one entry (raspberrypi3b) must be included for mdns to work consistently. I have added a second name (raspberrypi3b.local) as a contingency. There's some decent documentation on this from Debian. Raspberry Pi also has some documentation, but it must be carefully parsed as it tends to lead some readers astray, and they have an odd attitude about this - at least to my way of thinking.

Just to make sure there's no confusion, the hostname I've used (raspberry3b) is one I chose. You are free to choose your own!

Once you get your Windows hosts configured to support mDNS (aka avahi, aka zero configuration networking), and verify the 2 settings above, things should fall into place.