Samba issues a NetBIOS name broadcast of the 1st token of the hostname
(or whatever you configured for the SMB host name in smb.conf) as part
of initialization (that's part of what nmbd does). Something out in your
network is still listening to NetBIOS (probably your WINS server) and
registered it because it received the NB broadcast. The WINS server
admin can dump the cache and it will show where the entry came from. 

If WINS is configured, some versions of Windows prefer it over DNS, and
some do not (Win2K prefers it, XP tries DNS first, then falls back, I
think Vista doesn't even try WINS unless you explicitly request it
(finally!)). That would explain the inconsistency if the problem is two
different Windows machines performing the query. Linux doesn't know spit
about WINS. Only Samba does. 

> So, given that I didn't knowing try to use WINS (but I might have),
and I
> didn't install or bring up the DNS server, which, per the doc, would
have
> added the DNS entry, what might have caused this automagically
process?
> 
> Also, given that LINUX61 was created the same way, and a "ping
linux61"
> still fails?

Ping from where? The Windows box? Or the other Linux? If Windows, does
ipconfig /a show a WINS server configured? If Linux, then sure it
wouldn't see it -- WINS is a Windows thing. If it's not in DNS, then
Linux needs a DNS record, unless you're using an application like Samba
which explicitly queries WINS. 

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