Linksys CableDsl Router and DHCP etc.

I just installed a Linksys router to share broadband between
a Windows "XP Home" and a Redhat Linux machine. The
internet sharing is fine. What I'd like to do, if it can be
done simply, is to keep the router and machines set up
to use dynamic IP addressing but be able to refer to
the machines on the Lan by name. All the solutions
I could find using Google disable dynamic IP and
require filling in the ISP nameserver IPs. I'd rather
not do that since they tend to change and the ISP
is really set up to dynamically query for the DNS
server. Plus if I keep them dynamic if need be I
can pull out the router and connect the NIC
directly to the modem and get on the air easily
again(as in the case of giving the older machine
to somebody with broadband etc..)

I want to be able to transfer files back and forth but
I don't want to get into Samba setup right now since
the Linux machine is likely to change to Mandrake
and then another PC altogether, so I don't want
to put too too much sweat into it. Just NFS or
somehow lob files ocassionally back and forth.
I'd rather not have to do the ftp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
url thing with FTP or something that clunky if
I don't have to though.

TIA

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> I just installed a Linksys router to share broadband between
> a Windows "XP Home" and a Redhat Linux machine. The
> internet sharing is fine. What I'd like to do, if it can be
> done simply, is to keep the router and machines set up
> to use dynamic IP addressing but be able to refer to
> the machines on the Lan by name. All the solutions
> I could find using Google disable dynamic IP and
> require filling in the ISP nameserver IPs. I'd rather
> not do that since they tend to change and the ISP
> is really set up to dynamically query for the DNS
> server. Plus if I keep them dynamic if need be I
> can pull out the router and connect the NIC
> directly to the modem and get on the air easily
> again(as in the case of giving the older machine
> to somebody with broadband etc..)
>
> I want to be able to transfer files back and forth but
> I don't want to get into Samba setup right now since
> the Linux machine is likely to change to Mandrake
> and then another PC altogether, so I don't want
> to put too too much sweat into it. Just NFS or
> somehow lob files ocassionally back and forth.
> I'd rather not have to do the ftp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
> url thing with FTP or something that clunky if
> I don't have to though.
>
> TIA
>

If you've only got a couple of machines, just put them in the
"hosts" files on each machine with their local IP addresses
and whatever names you choose. You don't need to run DNS or
a WINS server for simple name resolution.

Use ftp (not from your browser, but from an ftp client) to
transfer files, initiated from the XP machine (since as I
recall it has a client out-of-the-box, but not a server).

If you want to do Windows style shares, I think your best bet
is Samba. It isn't that hard to do.

If you want to serve files up via a browser, I think Apache is
probably where you should be looking.

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On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 21:37:07 GMT, CJT <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>If you've only got a couple of machines, just put them in the
>"hosts" files on each machine with their local IP addresses
>and whatever names you choose. You don't need to run DNS or
>a WINS server for simple name resolution.

Hi. Thanks for the reply. I did that and I can ping both machines
by name, but doing a lookup fails. I'm wondering if maybe I
put the machine names in lmhosts if Samba will work?

>
>Use ftp (not from your browser, but from an ftp client) to
>transfer files, initiated from the XP machine (since as I
>recall it has a client out-of-the-box, but not a server).
>
>If you want to do Windows style shares, I think your best bet
>is Samba. It isn't that hard to do.

I'm just wondering if it will work if name lookup fails.
Ping seems to be smart enough to look in the hosts
file. I just installed mandrake 9.1 and I'm at the same
point AFA the network goes. Although I must say
things came up workin' pretty good out of the box.
I just don't want to jump into Samba setup if it's
doomed to failure. It worries me that nothing
will lookup the local machine names(except for
ping that is.)

Is anyone else using the trick of forcing dynamic ip
assigment to known values and putting that ip info
in the hosts files? (That's how I got ping to work)

Thanks for any info.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 21:37:07 GMT, CJT <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>
>>If you've only got a couple of machines, just put them in the
>>"hosts" files on each machine with their local IP addresses
>>and whatever names you choose. You don't need to run DNS or
>>a WINS server for simple name resolution.
>
>
> Hi. Thanks for the reply. I did that and I can ping both machines
> by name, but doing a lookup fails.

I'm not sure what you mean. If you can ping by name, then lookup
is succeeding. If you mean nslookup fails, you might man nslookup.
I'm not sure it uses the hosts file.

BTW, on the linux machine, you might want to look at /etc/nsswitch.conf
and make sure it contains "files" on the hosts line.

I'm wondering if maybe I
> put the machine names in lmhosts if Samba will work?

I thought you didn't want to use Samba. I think Samba will act as
a WINS server, so you could point your Windows machine at that.

>
>
>>Use ftp (not from your browser, but from an ftp client) to
>>transfer files, initiated from the XP machine (since as I
>>recall it has a client out-of-the-box, but not a server).
>>
>>If you want to do Windows style shares, I think your best bet
>>is Samba. It isn't that hard to do.
>
>
> I'm just wondering if it will work if name lookup fails.

I'm still unclear what you mean by that. Does your browser
do the lookup successfully?

> Ping seems to be smart enough to look in the hosts
> file. I just installed mandrake 9.1 and I'm at the same
> point AFA the network goes. Although I must say
> things came up workin' pretty good out of the box.
> I just don't want to jump into Samba setup if it's
> doomed to failure. It worries me that nothing
> will lookup the local machine names(except for
> ping that is.)

What have you tried? A browser?

>
> Is anyone else using the trick of forcing dynamic ip
> assigment to known values and putting that ip info
> in the hosts files? (That's how I got ping to work)

Put 'em behind a router with NAT and use static local addresses
if you've only got two machines. You probably need a router, anyway.

>
> Thanks for any info.
>


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The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
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On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 19:29:54 -0400, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 21:37:07 GMT, CJT <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>If you've only got a couple of machines, just put them in the
>>"hosts" files on each machine with their local IP addresses
>>and whatever names you choose. You don't need to run DNS or
>>a WINS server for simple name resolution.
>
>Hi. Thanks for the reply. I did that and I can ping both machines
>by name, but doing a lookup fails. I'm wondering if maybe I
>put the machine names in lmhosts if Samba will work?

Exactly - lmhosts is the hosts file that samba uses.

>
>>Use ftp (not from your browser, but from an ftp client) to
>>transfer files, initiated from the XP machine (since as I
>>recall it has a client out-of-the-box, but not a server).
>>
>>If you want to do Windows style shares, I think your best bet
>>is Samba. It isn't that hard to do.
>
>I'm just wondering if it will work if name lookup fails.
>Ping seems to be smart enough to look in the hosts
>file. I just installed mandrake 9.1 and I'm at the same
>point AFA the network goes. Although I must say
>things came up workin' pretty good out of the box.
>I just don't want to jump into Samba setup if it's
>doomed to failure. It worries me that nothing
>will lookup the local machine names(except for
>ping that is.)
>
>Is anyone else using the trick of forcing dynamic ip
>assigment to known values and putting that ip info
>in the hosts files? (That's how I got ping to work)
>
>Thanks for any info.

It's kind of a philosophy thing and kind of a technical design
thing... there's a sharp break between samba and tcp/ip. ping uses
tcp/ip. Samba, while it rides along on top of tcp/ip, is NOT directly
connected.

There are several ways to actually connect it up, but to be honest,
it's more of a pain than it's worth for small networks.

However, look into swat and webmin for simpler configuration options.

Mike-


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On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 20:49:06 -0400, Michael W. Cocke
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>There are several ways to actually connect it up, but to be honest,
>it's more of a pain than it's worth for small networks.

Yeah, I guess for now it's not worth the hassle since I might
be swapping the machine out. I'm almost there(or it least
it seems like it.) I can browse with Konqueror and sometimes
it will show me the files in the XP share, but it won't copy a byte.

I did find a nice article how to set up PureFTP. Step by step
how to build, install, and set up accounts etc.. That seems to work
well enough for what I need right now. Only pain is after uploading
from the XP side I have to chown the files and copy 'em as
root etc.. but at least it works.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.