gethostbyname("just the nmachine name ") not working

[Arul Jeyananth]

Hi,
gethostbyname("ip address of a macine in  the network") works fine . 
gethostbyname("just the nmachine name ") not working. 
But If I give the machine name, and the host file not having any entry about
the machine and there is no name for that machine in the DNS, that call
fails

Plese suggest some ways to rectify this problem


Regards,
Arul