name resolution on LAN using netbios

I have a simple home network with a LinkSys router/AP/gateway. My home
computers are configured via DHCP through the router. Unfortunately,
this device does not support static IP assignments based on MAC
addresses or anything. I have three computers at home, one of which
usually runs WinXP (and has a printer), while the other two run Linux.
It is annoying to constantly get the DHCP client list "by hand" and edit
/etc/hosts each time I want to connect to another computer via ssh or
whatever. Another reason for this: I couldn't get printing to work
through samba, though I was able to do it using lpd after enabling that
on the WinXP box. But lpd requires the correct entry in /etc/hosts
instead of using netbios names.

Is there some way, via /etc/nsswitch.conf or resolv.conf or something
else, to allow netbios names on the LAN to get resolved in the standard way?

I'd be happy to use something other than netbios to broadcast the names.
Are lisa or reslisa good alternatives that would work on Windows as well?

This must be a very common problem, but I haven't been able to find any
advice in howto or other docs. An earlier thread was mentioning DDNS,
but that souds like something that only runs on a Windows box. I want
something that works even if I only have Linux machines online.

Thanks,
Topher

"topher" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:T4VUb.39018$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I have a simple home network with a LinkSys router/AP/gateway. My home
> computers are configured via DHCP through the router. Unfortunately,
> this device does not support static IP assignments based on MAC
> addresses or anything. I have three computers at home, one of which
> usually runs WinXP (and has a printer), while the other two run Linux.
> It is annoying to constantly get the DHCP client list "by hand" and edit
> /etc/hosts each time I want to connect to another computer via ssh or
> whatever. Another reason for this: I couldn't get printing to work
> through samba, though I was able to do it using lpd after enabling that
> on the WinXP box. But lpd requires the correct entry in /etc/hosts
> instead of using netbios names.
>
> Is there some way, via /etc/nsswitch.conf or resolv.conf or something
> else, to allow netbios names on the LAN to get resolved in the standard
way?
>
> I'd be happy to use something other than netbios to broadcast the names.
> Are lisa or reslisa good alternatives that would work on Windows as
well?
>
> This must be a very common problem, but I haven't been able to find any
> advice in howto or other docs. An earlier thread was mentioning DDNS,
> but that souds like something that only runs on a Windows box. I want
> something that works even if I only have Linux machines online.
>
> Thanks,
> Topher

I don't have your type of Linksys router but if its anything like my old
Linksys 4 port router/switch, you should be able to disable the DHCP side of
it and just use static IP addresses in the same range that yours currently
hands out (192.168.1.xxx), then on each of your systems just give them their
own static IP, set the gateway on each system to the Linksys internal IP
address (usually 192.168.1.1) and plugin your IPS's DNS server addresses in
the appropriate places. Then update your HOSTS file(s) one last time to
reflect the static IP addresses and your problem should be solved.

Al


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topher wrote:

> I have a simple home network with a LinkSys router/AP/gateway. My home
> computers are configured via DHCP through the router. Unfortunately,
> this device does not support static IP assignments based on MAC
> addresses or anything.

It doesn't have to. Set your dhcp range to be less than the network address
range and assign static addresses outside of the dhcp range. For example,
configure network to be 192.168.1.0 -192.168.1.255, then set dhcp to assign
addresses up to 192.168.1.63 and place your static addresses above that
range. Then add the addresses to the hosts files.

--

Fundamentalism is fundamentally wrong.

To reply to this message, replace everything to the left of "@" with
james.knott.

Yes, it can be resolved using netbios fully automatically.

Edit the "hosts: " line in /etc/nsswitch.conf to end with "wins" eg:
hosts: files dns wins

Thanks! That worked!

Funny, I was diligently reading the nsswitch.conf man page before
posting here, which mentioned only gethostbyname(3), which itself refers
only to the older host.conf file. The Net-HOWTO file also did not
mention nsswitch.conf and I was getting nervous that I didn't even have
/etc/host.conf. I'm running Gentoo Linux which normally stays
up-to-date on stuff like the man and howto pages, but I guess the docs
have slipped behind in this area. Anyway, I like your solution because
it's very clean and simple.

Thanks also to Al and James' suggestins of using static IP addresses.
I'm happy to do that for my desktop computers, but it creates an
additional hassle with my laptop which I take back and forth to work. I
would at least need a different wireless scheme.

- Topher

Fred Emmott wrote:
> Yes, it can be resolved using netbios fully automatically.
>
> Edit the "hosts: " line in /etc/nsswitch.conf to end with "wins" eg:
> hosts: files dns wins

topher wrote:

> Thanks! That worked!
>
> Funny, I was diligently reading the nsswitch.conf man page before
> posting here, which mentioned only gethostbyname(3), which itself refers
> only to the older host.conf file. The Net-HOWTO file also did not
> mention nsswitch.conf and I was getting nervous that I didn't even have
> /etc/host.conf. I'm running Gentoo Linux which normally stays
> up-to-date on stuff like the man and howto pages, but I guess the docs
> have slipped behind in this area. Anyway, I like your solution because
> it's very clean and simple.
>
> Thanks also to Al and James' suggestins of using static IP addresses.
> I'm happy to do that for my desktop computers, but it creates an
> additional hassle with my laptop which I take back and forth to work. I
> would at least need a different wireless scheme.
>
> - Topher
>
> Fred Emmott wrote:
>> Yes, it can be resolved using netbios fully automatically.
>>
>> Edit the "hosts: " line in /etc/nsswitch.conf to end with "wins" eg:
>> hosts: files dns wins

it's in the samba documentation, not the nameservice documentation