The setup: Active Directory is enabled on the network (abcd.com) We have a single character host name (1.abcd.com) one of the desktop has an old XP with NetBIOS stuff enabled The Problem Whenever we query for any host name from the XP machine, the first character alone is taken for DNS query (one.abcd.com will query for o.abcd.com, two.abcd.com will query for t.abcd.com) Even if we give some IP, the application queries with numeric prefix (10.x.x.x will query for 1.abcd.com).Since we already have 1.abcd.com, all query and traffic ends up in 1.abcd.com After discussion with network guys, it seems netbios DNS queries by having some prefix etc. but none of them is actually sure on what is happening. Is there any docs which can explain this behavior ? Is this valid behavior in NetBIOS environment ?