Setting FQDN for slrn

Hi,

I am hoping to setup a fully qualified domain name for slrn and later
so I can set my own email server etc. I am running Ubuntu Dapper. But
I have not much of an idea how to do it.

My research so far has shown me:

1. Buy a domain name
2. Set my computer / router to a static ip address for the computer
itself
3. Alter my /etc/hosts file to show:

ip address / domain name / alias

Am I missing anything?

Andrew

--
Andrew's Corner
http://people.aapt.net.au/~adjlstrong/homer.html

On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 07:56:36 +0000 (UTC), andrew wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am hoping to setup a fully qualified domain name for slrn and later
> so I can set my own email server etc. I am running Ubuntu Dapper. But
> I have not much of an idea how to do it.
>
> My research so far has shown me:
>
> Am I missing anything?

Well, you can name your LAN with a any_name.invalid without having to buy
a domain name. http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2606.txt

I went with static ip for my LAN nodes.
$ hostname
wb.home.invalid

$ cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.2.1 fw.home.invalid fw
192.168.2.12 wb1.home.invalid wb1
192.168.2.30 wb.home.invalid wb

If you do not want to go static, your get to setup named/bind and tell your
dhcp server what is going on, if not static, depending on what you want
your LAN to be able to do.

Off hand I can not remember if you put FQDN in
/etc/hostname or /etc/HOSTNAME for your distribution.

On 2007-06-17, Bit Twister <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 07:56:36 +0000 (UTC), andrew wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am hoping to setup a fully qualified domain name for slrn and later
>> so I can set my own email server etc. I am running Ubuntu Dapper. But
>> I have not much of an idea how to do it.

[...]
>> Am I missing anything?
> Well, you can name your LAN with a any_name.invalid without having to buy
> a domain name. http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2606.txt

Thanks I was not aware of that. I have used .invalid for a hostname
and this is fine for my purposes.

Andrew

--
Andrew's Corner
http://people.aapt.net.au/~adjlstrong/homer.html

On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 23:11:22 +0000 (UTC), andrew wrote:
>> Well, you can name your LAN with a any_name.invalid without having to buy
>> a domain name. http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2606.txt
>
> Thanks I was not aware of that. I have used .invalid for a hostname
> and this is fine for my purposes.

You misunderstand, domanin name would be any_name.invalid with your
hostname, andrew, for a FQDN of andrew.any_name.invalid

On 2007-06-17, Bit Twister <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 23:11:22 +0000 (UTC), andrew wrote:
>>> Well, you can name your LAN with a any_name.invalid without having to buy
>>> a domain name. http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2606.txt
>>
>> Thanks I was not aware of that. I have used .invalid for a hostname
>> and this is fine for my purposes.
>
> You misunderstand, domanin name would be any_name.invalid with your
> hostname, andrew, for a FQDN of andrew.any_name.invalid

I have not expressed myself well, as usual. I have the following,
which works with slrn:

andrew@ilium:~$ cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost ilium
127.0.1.1 ilium

192.168.1.66 andrew.ilium.invalid ilium

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

Not sure why there are 2 entries for 127.0....? My knowledge of
networking has undoubtedly been revealed here :-) In my defence I have
an excellent linux book on the way from Amazon: A Practical Guide to
Linux(R) Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming by Mark Sobell which
I believe has a section on networking.

But in the meantime if you you have the time and patience to comment
on my settings I would be grateful.

Andrew

--
Andrew's Corner
http://people.aapt.net.au/~adjlstrong/homer.html

On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 23:48:51 +0000 (UTC), andrew wrote:
>
> andrew@ilium:~$ cat /etc/hosts
> 127.0.0.1 localhost ilium
> 127.0.1.1 ilium
>
> 192.168.1.66 andrew.ilium.invalid ilium

> Not sure why there are 2 entries for 127.0....?

Left over attempts at networking maybe.

If me, I would have the top three lines looking like
$ cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.1.66 andrew.ilium.invalid ilium

(rest of your hosts file snipped for this reply)


As an, oh by the way, the first time I go to modify a config file, I
copy it to _orig,
If I want to play with it again, I copy it to _works. That gives me
something like
$ ls -1 /etc/hosts*
/etc/hosts~ <---- last backup from using editor on last change
/etc/hosts_orig <--- one created by install and is the original
/etc/hosts_works <-- last one that worked before I "improved it"

On Sun, 17 Jun 2007, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.networking, in
article <f52pfk$h60$(E-Mail Removed)>, andrew wrote:

> I am hoping to setup a fully qualified domain name for slrn

Depends on your news server - yours seems to be setting the 'Message-ID:'
and probably the 'NNTP-Posting-Host:' fields. Press the 't' key to see
all of the headers in your post, and compare it to others. In my case,
the 'Message-ID:' is set locally based on my username and local hostname.

>and later so I can set my own email server etc.

Your ISP is using "generic" hostnames (defined as looking like it was
defined by a shell script - it contains the IP address), and a number of
mail servers refuse to accept connections from such hosts. At least your
ISP has configured a DNS PTR record for the address. You also want to
check the various block lists if you expect to send mail. Also, check
with your ISP about using this address to send mail - a growing number
of ISPs are blocking outbound access to remote port 25 in an effort to
reduce the amount of zombie spam. Spend some time scanning the Usenet
newsgroup 'news.admin.net-abuse.blocklisting' to see what kinds of
problems you'll run into.

>I am running Ubuntu Dapper. But I have not much of an idea how to do it.

I don't recommend running servers on a user type of system.

> My research so far has shown me:
>
>1. Buy a domain name

You don't actually _buy_ the name, so much as TEMPORARILY register the
name. There are literally hundreds of 'registrars'. Start by hitting
your favorite search engine, and look for the terms "icann registration
requirements" and gain a huge eyeful of information. Briefly, to get a
registration, you will need a unique domain name, some cash, and the IP
address and names of at least two different name servers that will be
authoritative for your domain (many registrars can provide this service
for an extra fee). You also need some idea where the domain will be
hosted (residential ISPs often prohibit this in their terms of service
unless yo pay extra0.

>2. Set my computer / router to a static ip address for the computer
>itself

Static addresses are not _required_ for servers (though they are a
very good idea0, but as noted above do check with your ISP

>3. Alter my /etc/hosts file to show:

Debian (your Ubuntu distribution is a clone of Debian) sets the hostname
from /etc/hostname, and the IP address in /etc/network/interfaces. Yes,
you ALSO need to set /etc/hosts, but also the appropriate DNS zonefiles.

>Am I missing anything?

Yeah - why do you feel you need to set up a domain? I'm assuming there
is some other reason.

Old guy

On 2007-06-18, Bit Twister <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 23:48:51 +0000 (UTC), andrew wrote:
> If me, I would have the top three lines looking like
> $ cat /etc/hosts

[....]

> 127.0.0.1 localhost
> 192.168.1.66 andrew.ilium.invalid ilium
>

I have experimented as you suggested (including a careful backup!) and
all appears well. Hopefully my message header will reflect this after
this post.

Thanks again,

Andrew

--
Andrew's Corner
http://people.aapt.net.au/~adjlstrong/homer.html

On 2007-06-18, andrew <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> On 2007-06-18, Bit Twister <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 23:48:51 +0000 (UTC), andrew wrote:
>> If me, I would have the top three lines looking like
>> $ cat /etc/hosts
>
> [....]
>
>> 127.0.0.1 localhost
>> 192.168.1.66 andrew.ilium.invalid ilium
>>
>
> I have experimented as you suggested (including a careful backup!) and
> all appears well. Hopefully my message header will reflect this after
> this post.

Woo hooo!!:

Message-ID: <(E-Mail Removed)>

Andrew


--
Andrew's Corner
http://people.aapt.net.au/~adjlstrong/homer.html

On Mon, 18 Jun 2007 05:59:15 +0000 (UTC), andrew wrote:

>> 192.168.1.66 andrew.ilium.invalid ilium

> I have experimented as you suggested (including a careful backup!) and
> all appears well.

Ah, frap. Normaly the alias is the node name, the line should read

192.168.1.66 andrew.ilium.invalid andrew

For extra points,
man hosts