How to reach a computer by hostname on a LAN?

[Gene Heskett]

On Tuesday 28 December 2004 01:25, Christopher J. Bottaro wrote:
>Simple setup.  I have a router that assigns IP addresses by DHCP.  I
> have two linux machines:  compa and compb which get their IP
> addresses using DHCP with the router.  From compa, I want to be
> able to say "ping compb" instead of having to use ifconfig on compb
> to figure out what its IP address is, then ping it (i.e. "ping
> 192.168.1.3").
>
>How is this possible?  Manually editing the /etc/hosts file doesn't
> work because the IP addresses can change at boot (or whenever DHCP
> is used to get a new address).
>
>Thanks.

Turn off the dhcp in the router and use the /etc/hosts file to do the 
resolving.  You can use the same hosts file throughout your local 
network.  I've been doing that here for 6 or 7 years.  You'll have to 
assign the local ip address per machine in 
the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 scripts also, which 
will give a fixed address for that machine.  To me, dhcp on a small 
home network, or even on an 80+ machine business internal network is 
a waste of time and resources.  But then thats just my opinion too.

One could even setup a cron job on those machines that have a cron, to 
grab the master copy of the hosts file and refresh it if the network 
is being constantly changed.  That would take a load off the IT guy, 
who usually has his own pool of alligators to wrestle.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
99.30% setiathome rank, not too shabby for a WV hillbilly
Yahoo.com attorneys please note, additions to this message
by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2004 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.