locan and internet resolution

[Brad]

Hi,
         I have a linux machine connected to the net. behind this are a
number of machines all being masq'd. I would like to name each machine, and
then be able to axs it via that name.
At the moment I have I can ping the ip address but not the names I have
given the machines. I entered the machine names and their respective IP
addresses into /etc/hosts to no avail. /etc/resolv.conf has itself listed as
the nameserver and also my isp as secondary. /etc/host.conf is set to order
hosts,bind and multi on. In windows, the dns is stated as 10.0.0.1 which is
the ip address of the linux machine. Can anyone give me a little help on how
to be able to reach the machine 10.0.0.2 whos name is weapon by typing 'ping
weapon' ? I also added an entry into /etc/hosts which states
XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX                   mail
Now, when I ping mail, from windows or linux, it pings my isp's mail server,
which is the ip adress I specified. So to me, it is working for ip's on the
internet but not on the intranet
 Any ideas anyone??
 Thanx
Brad