How to reference dynamic IP with named DNS

[Joel]

On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 15:27:02 +1000
Neil Dugan <fedora at butterflystitches.com.au> wrote

> Hi,
> 
> I have a local network with a couple of server computers setup with
> static IP addresses.  I also have 2 computers with dynamic IP addresses
> gotten though DHCP.  Using 'named' as a DNS I can access the 2 server
> computers via names.  But I haven't been able to figure out how to be
> able to access the computers with dynamic IP address via a name.  I can
> access them fine with there IP address.

You need some way to assign their domain names dynamically.

The ways to do this vary, depending on whether you want the domain names
visible outside your local network or not. If not, with only four
computers to deal with, man /etc/hosts .

If you need to make the dynamically assigned hosts visible outside the
local network and the DHCP server is (ergo, your ISP serving) global
address space IP numbers, the quick-and-dirty way is to use a dynamic
DNS service. There are many and some are free for basic services. 

If your local name server publishes your local names, you should be able
to configure it to handle the dynamic DNS stuff yourself.

However, if the DHCP is your own and is assigning from the local-only
address space, you'll need to do some NAT translations based on port
numbers. Or you'll need to have a services proxy that knows to forward
to the local host based on the name and service. Etc. That can get
pretty involved.

Make sense?

--
Joel Rees   <rees at ddcom.co.jp>
digitcom, inc.   株式会社デジコム
Kobe, Japan   +81-78-672-8800
** <http://www.ddcom.co.jp> **