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Topic: connect from network via hostname, sorta there but not quite

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mikshaw

Group: Members
Posts: 4856
Joined: July 2004

Posted: Feb. 03 2007,06:15

I'm finally moving into some networking trials using DSL, and have mostly been satisfied. However, there is one thing confusing me today.

My new DSL system is a 2.3 frugal install, using host=acer boot option (it's a temp name...acer manufacturer) connected to the local network through a linksys router with dhcp. I can connect the acer to and from other machines on the network using its IP address...sshd and httpd both work.

The acer shows as "box" on my router initially, but I can change that with pump, so it's not a big issue.

The thing I'm confused about is that other machines on my network (suse, slackware, and windows) have no trouble connecting to other machines using their hostnames, but DSL apparently can neither connect to other hostnames nor can been seen by other machines by its hostname.

A search of these forums brought up a couple of posts by cbagger1 in which he stated that a dns server is needed to handle this.
Does this mean that Windows and several other Linux systems already have a DNS server installed and properly configured automatically to handle names, and DSL does not have it?

Does anyone have any thoughts about how to install a dns server into a frugal DSL, without using apt or other system that would try to bulk up my base system?

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http://www.tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/index.html

^thehatsrule^ Offline

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Posts: 3275
Joined: July 2006

Posted: Feb. 03 2007,06:38

Your router probably has a DNS server in which the other systems are using.
And if you boot up DSL and the network is configured automagically, it should be using it.

However I'm not sure how it works in all setups... try checking out /etc/resolv.conf
and maybe /etc/hosts (you could try to hardcode the addresses here if nothing else works)

roberts

Group: Members
Posts: 4983
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: Feb. 03 2007,15:56

A DNS server is required for ip to name maping.
When using a name instead of IP, then /etc/hosts is first consulted and if not found there, the nameserver, DNS, as found in /etc/resolv.conf which is likely your ISP and they would not know your hostname(s).

Windows, always being different usually uses WINS. Not sure if other Linux distros that sort of copy Windows, use WINS, or if there is a Samba connection there. I am becomming more more distant to anything Windows.

Use nslookup to query your namserver or you may specifiy to use any nameserver

Not sure if routers also have DNS capabilities, might.
Try nslookup look-up-this-host-name 192.168.0.1

Where 192.168.0.1 is your router's IP.

mikshaw

Group: Members
Posts: 4856
Joined: July 2004

Posted: Feb. 03 2007,19:34

Quote

Try nslookup look-up-this-host-name 192.168.0.1

Ok, I'll try that when i get back to the Acer box. I couldn't figure out the syntax of Busybox nslookup and didn't try too hard to figure out if that was indeed a command that would be useful in this situation. All I knew for sure was that the router's web interface properly showed all connected boxes' IPs and hostnames, windows and slackware could communicate with each other via hostnames, but DSL connections required an IP address to go either way.

Thinking back on it, though, I don't specifically recall trying to connect to the windows box from Linux recently, but I do know that Windows sees my Slackware box (and previously Suse) by its hostname.

As an aside, I have no personal connection to Windows either...the Windows box is not mine =o)

In any case, I had already added this to bootlocal:

Code Sample

echo "nameserver 192.168.1.1"> /etc/dhcpc/resolv.conf

I'm not sure why that particular file is used rather than /etc/resolv.conf, but with DSL I've gotten used to various files being in unusual places compared to Slackware and Redhat derivatives (maybe it's a debian thing?). Apart from that I have not made any networking changes to DSL. I assumed /etc/hosts would help, but thought it would be inconvenient since I'm using dhcp. Maybe i'll spend some time setting up the network with static IPs to make this easier. We're finally getting broadband in my neck of the woods (or so i have heard), so I'm going to need to reconfigure and secure the network soon anyway.

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http://www.tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/index.html