Problem with DHCP, /etc/hosts and GNOME

Julien Olivier julo at altern.org
Thu Apr 8 17:05:50 UTC 2004


> That's a little easier....  That's what DNS is for.....
> 
> /etc/hosts is there to remove the burden from DNS when things are 
> *KNOWN*, ie, static IP addresses and hostnames.
> 
> DHCP, by definition, is dynamic.  Furthermore, a DHCP server [your 
> router] is under no obligation to provide you with the same ip address 
> every time you boot up [or worse, every time your lease expires!!!].  
> Let's say that your lease time is 3600 seconds.  Then, every hour, the 
> DHCP client is going to request a lease renewal.  Usually, the DHCP 
> server says 'Fine, here ya go, keep the same one for another 3600 
> seconds'.  However, it doesn't have to.  It could turn around and say 
> 'Too bad..  Deal with a new IP/Hostname'.  Would you want *all* of those 
> to be added to your /etc/hosts?  Because, now your old IP address is no 
> longer localhost...

OK, thanks for the explanation. I think I get it now.

But what I still don't understand is: why don't I need to configure
anything for my laptop to connect to the internet on Windows XP, but I
have to modify /etc/hosts on Fedora ?

-- 
Julien Olivier <julo at altern.org>





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