Re: Name resolution for local names using DHCP

Charles Russell wrote:
Unruh wrote:
Charles Russell <NOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Charles Russell wrote:
I can't figure out how to get name resolution for computers on my home WLAN, though everything works all right if I type in explicit IP addresses. The IP addresses will vary because of DHCP, so I can't simply put them in /etc/hosts.

The hostnames and IP addresses are all known to the router (Linksys wrt54g), as I can confirm by querying the router. Should the router not resolve these local hostnames? Or do I misunderstand how this should work under DHCP?

Thanks for the responses, everybody. I infer that there is no simple fix within the capability of the DHCP server in my $50 Linksys wrt54g router. Given that there is no simple fix, and that the only problem is that I have to manually enter IP addresses whenever I do local ftp or ssh, I think I'll follow the principle: "If it ain't broke (much), don't fix it (much)."

Some routers allow you to tell the dhcp service on the router to allways
assign ip address X to MAC address Y. Look through the manual to see if
your router allows that.


Yes, it does. But why should static IP addresses be required, when the DHCP server already has the hostname-IP address associations it needs to resolve the local hostname?

Well, maybe that just can't be done by a basic router. I fortuitously hit upon the recent exchange, which seems to address the same problem. It surprises me that the router software doesn't handle this transparently by itself, but maybe I am expecting too much for $50.

Brian Kendig wrote:
> If I've got a home network that's assigning addresses via DHCP, and it
> doesn't have any local DNS server on it, and every computer on the
> network has a hostname - can I connect from one computer to another by
> name?
>
> That is, if one computer is named 'foo' and the other is named 'bar',
> when I log on to 'foo' and type 'ssh bar', will that work?
>
> Or does DHCP not pay any attention to local hostnames, and I'll need
> to set up the computer names in a DNS server on my network?


There is a small DNS forwarding daemon for
small networks with DHCP clients: dnsmasq.

It also can serve names from the /etc/hosts
file of the server.

--

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio (at) iki fi
.

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