[CLUE-Tech] Home network question

[Matt Gushee]

On Fri, Oct 18, 2002 at 06:31:23AM -0600, Randy Arabie wrote:

> > So my question is: what is the simplest way to enable Linux boxes on a
> > small network to find each other by hostname?
> 
> One way would be to maintain /etc/hosts.  But then, you would need them 
> each machine to have the same IP address each time it booted.  Which you 
> can do with DHCP.  I have three boxes that always get assigned the same
> IP by my DHCP server.  But, that is the key, it is _my_ DHCP server, so
> I can configure it. 

On Fri, Oct 18, 2002 at 07:34:24AM -0600, David Willson wrote:
> Simplest:           You could create a DHCP reservation for each mac
> address.

Well, I'm not sure I can do that. One thing I forgot to mention is that
my DHCP server is my Cisco 678 router; it is configurable, but only up
to a point. To have an actual computer as a DHCP server, I'd have to buy
a new computer (on the one machine I have that could possibly perform
that role, all my expansion slots are in use, and I'm not willing to
give up my video card, my sound card, or my SCSI controller). But I'll
review what I can and can't do with the Cisco.

> Weirdest:           You could use Samba, and it's broadcast/WINS
> name-resolution.

I may want to do that, partly because I want to learn more about Samba,
and partly to accommodate the occasional need to connect with my wife's
Win98 box. But I've made several attempts to get Samba running,
seemingly doing everything correctly, and it has never worked. I suspect
it may be another of those weird undocumented cases, like the
DHCP/kernel options thing.

On Fri, Oct 18, 2002 at 07:32:07AM -0600, Adam A. G. Shamblin wrote:

> At this point in a conversation about dhcp, I usually ask why it is necessary to run dhcp on such a small network.

That's a good question. The only sensible answer I have at the moment is
that, although it's a very small network, it doesn't always have all the
same machines on it--though they don't change as often as I originally
expected.

Thanks for the good suggestions, everyone.

-- 
Matt Gushee                 When a nation follows the Way,
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mgushee at havenrock.com           its fields;
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