forcing absolute urls

Hi

We have a server on an intranet which is accessed by it's ip. When you try to 
access the server using IE the IP is translated into a hostname, but since 
the hostname is only known by the server itself, the client ends up with a 
'host not found'. 

I need some way of forcing all urls to use absolute urls beginning with the 
server's IP, or even some way of getting the client's to stop trying to 
translate the IPs. Any help or pointers will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Vaughn