[CLUE-Tech] Home network question

[Keith Hellman]

Matt:

I've been following this thread (replete with good ideas) and it seems
this is the perfect weekend python project.

You can't make your Cisco router dynamic update to a DNS server (if you
can then stop reading :^).

You could:
* write a little python daemon that actively probes IPs in your DHCP
  range, retrieves a name from each machine (all boxes have a
  name-spitter-outer service, probably 6 lines of code in Python) and
  registers them using dynamic DNS to your bind server...
* if you don't want to setup bind, the name-spitter-outer service could
  also accept newly detected broadcasted (IP,machine) tuples and edit
  your /etc/hosts automatically
* this will work on Windows machines because A>python runs on windows
  and B>Windows has an lmhosts file (IIRC), or it would be using your
  bind server
* whichever architecture you choose should support a command line
  interface to add ad-hoc machines (for instance when someone drops by
  your house to collaborate) without needing to install any software on
  the transient interloper.

Granted, all this could be avoided by hosting a DHCP server + BIND on a
dedicated box.  But hell, that's only about 2 hours of configuration
probably - any of the above could be a good 8 hour coding spree!

Keith