DNS or am I missing something?

Hi,

I have a fairly basic home network.... a DLINK 2100 wireless access point, a
DLINK DI-604 DSL Router/firewall.

I have a unix PC connected to the DI604 direct and a couple of PCs that I
use over the wireless network.

All IP addresses are issued via DHCP currently and are 192.168.0.*
addresses.

The DI-604 gets its WAN IP address from my broadband provider.

I think my DNS servers are passed through from the WAN DHCP... to the
clients as part of their DHCP lookup.

What I'm trying to understand is how I can resolve hostnames on my local
LAN. It appears that the PCs recognise the hostname of the linux PC -
imaginatively named linuxsvr, but my linuxsvr can't find the windows PCs?

Am I missing something here... how can the windows PCs resolve a hostname
without using either a DNS service or a local hosts file?

any help is much appreciated,

cheers

Ian

"Ian" <(E-Mail Removed)_with_this_removed> wrote in message
news:EZVqf.13878$(E-Mail Removed) k...
[snip]
> Am I missing something here... how can the windows PCs resolve a hostname
> without using either a DNS service or a local hosts file?

Through NetBIOS (Windows file sharing). Apparently (but not too
surprisingly) the Linux machine does not do this.

Alex

"Alex Fraser" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed). uk...
> "Ian" <(E-Mail Removed)_with_this_removed> wrote in message
> news:EZVqf.13878$(E-Mail Removed) k...
> [snip]
>> Am I missing something here... how can the windows PCs resolve a hostname
>> without using either a DNS service or a local hosts file?
>
> Through NetBIOS (Windows file sharing). Apparently (but not too
> surprisingly) the Linux machine does not do this.
>
> Alex
>
>

that makes sense. The bit I'm struggling to understand is whether a) I
need to make sure all nodes in my network are resolvable and b) how to do
it?

I'd have expected the answer to a) to be yes, but am happy for someone to
explain if I'm wrong

Ian

short answer you cant easly.

You could set up NIS or ldap for host name lookups and then change the
nsswitch.conf file. but why go to all they effot on a home network with a
couple of PC , just use the local hosts file.
I imagine the windows boxes can see each other becasuse of netbios working
in broadcast mode.

good luck

"Ian" <(E-Mail Removed)_with_this_removed> wrote in message
news:EZVqf.13878$(E-Mail Removed) k...
> Hi,
>
> I have a fairly basic home network.... a DLINK 2100 wireless access point,
> a DLINK DI-604 DSL Router/firewall.
>
> I have a unix PC connected to the DI604 direct and a couple of PCs that I
> use over the wireless network.
>
> All IP addresses are issued via DHCP currently and are 192.168.0.*
> addresses.
>
> The DI-604 gets its WAN IP address from my broadband provider.
>
> I think my DNS servers are passed through from the WAN DHCP... to the
> clients as part of their DHCP lookup.
>
> What I'm trying to understand is how I can resolve hostnames on my local
> LAN. It appears that the PCs recognise the hostname of the linux PC -
> imaginatively named linuxsvr, but my linuxsvr can't find the windows PCs?
>
> Am I missing something here... how can the windows PCs resolve a hostname
> without using either a DNS service or a local hosts file?
>
> any help is much appreciated,
>
> cheers
>
> Ian
>

Let me Think wrote in
(E-Mail Removed):

> short answer you cant easily.
>
> You could set up NIS or ldap for host name lookups and then change the
> nsswitch.conf file. but why go to all they effort on a home network
> with a couple of PC , just use the local hosts file.
> I imagine the windows boxes can see each other because of netbios
> working in broadcast mode.

Does Linux have a NetBIOS-over-TCP module that can be downloaded? You might
need more than that if you want file sharing because you'll need an SMB
command processor on the Linux PC as well - the equivalent of Windows'
Microsoft Networking module; maybe Linux has one of these (my knowledge of
Unix stops at SCO's UnixWare in about 1995). I used to work on a package for
UnixWare and Solaris which consisted of NetBIOS-over-TCP/OSI and an SMB
processor, to make a Unix computer "look" like a Windows NT server as seen
by Windows clients. This was when I worked at ICL. Sadly, not long after we
released it, SCO started bundling the same technology (possibly even
obtained from the same supplier as us) free with every copy of UnixWare,
which sort of knocked the stuffing out of our chargeable product :-(

Ian wrote:
> "Alex Fraser" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed). uk...
>> "Ian" <(E-Mail Removed)_with_this_removed> wrote in message
>> news:EZVqf.13878$(E-Mail Removed) k...
>> [snip]
>>> Am I missing something here... how can the windows PCs resolve a
>>> hostname without using either a DNS service or a local hosts file?
>>
>> Through NetBIOS (Windows file sharing). Apparently (but not too
>> surprisingly) the Linux machine does not do this.
>>
>> Alex
>>
>>
>
> that makes sense. The bit I'm struggling to understand is whether
> a) I need to make sure all nodes in my network are resolvable and b)
> how to do it?
>
> I'd have expected the answer to a) to be yes, but am happy for
> someone to explain if I'm wrong
>
Well , A) is yes if you need traffic to go from the linux machines to the
windows ones by name rather than IP address.
For B) you can just make entries in the HOSTS file (assuming it has one) on
the linux machine , or run a DNS server on your LAN

--
Alex

Hermes: "We can't afford that! Especially not Zoidberg!"
Zoidberg: "They took away my credit cards!"

www.drzoidberg.co.uk
www.ebayfaq.co.uk

On Fri, 23 Dec 2005 16:55:00 GMT, "Ian"
<(E-Mail Removed)_with_this_removed> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I have a fairly basic home network.... a DLINK 2100 wireless access point, a
>DLINK DI-604 DSL Router/firewall.

I was helping someone with these today, but it was the ADSL version.
>
>I have a unix PC connected to the DI604 direct and a couple of PCs that I
>use over the wireless network.
>
>All IP addresses are issued via DHCP currently and are 192.168.0.*
>addresses.
>
>The DI-604 gets its WAN IP address from my broadband provider.
>
>I think my DNS servers are passed through from the WAN DHCP... to the
>clients as part of their DHCP lookup.

The one I had today past the DNS servers of the router to the DHCP
clients, which then looked up the DNS info in the WAN DNS servers. In
the advanced settings of the router, there is an option for LAN
clients, where you can assign the clients specific names which will
then appear in the DNS table in the router.

Andrew.
--
Andrew Hodgson in Bromyard, Herefordshire, UK.
My Email: use <andrew at hodgsonfamily dot org>.

On Fri, 23 Dec 2005 20:24:49 -0000, "Martin Underwood" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Let me Think wrote in
>(E-Mail Removed):
>
>> short answer you cant easily.
>>
>> You could set up NIS or ldap for host name lookups and then change the
>> nsswitch.conf file. but why go to all they effort on a home network
>> with a couple of PC , just use the local hosts file.
>> I imagine the windows boxes can see each other because of netbios
>> working in broadcast mode.
>
>Does Linux have a NetBIOS-over-TCP module that can be downloaded? You might
>need more than that if you want file sharing because you'll need an SMB
>command processor on the Linux PC as well - the equivalent of Windows'
>Microsoft Networking module; maybe Linux has one of these (my knowledge of
>Unix stops at SCO's UnixWare in about 1995). I used to work on a package for
>UnixWare and Solaris which consisted of NetBIOS-over-TCP/OSI and an SMB
>processor, to make a Unix computer "look" like a Windows NT server as seen
>by Windows clients. This was when I worked at ICL. Sadly, not long after we
>released it, SCO started bundling the same technology (possibly even
>obtained from the same supplier as us) free with every copy of UnixWare,
>which sort of knocked the stuffing out of our chargeable product :-(

Today there is Samba <http://www.samba.org>.

Andrew.
>

--
Andrew Hodgson in Bromyard, Herefordshire, UK.
My Email: use <andrew at hodgsonfamily dot org>.