[Gllug] Resolving host names from a dhcp server

[farnsaw at stonedoor.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: N.Pauli
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 8:03 PM
To: gllug at gllug.org.uk
Subject: [Gllug] Resolving host names from a dhcp server

Dear All, 
 
I'm using TightVNC's vncviewer to connect to VNCservers running on
clients 
on our network. What I want to do is to be able to type in the host's
name 
(e.g. it24) rather than its ip address (e.g. 10.0.3.62) to be able to
view 
that station. Originally my linux box [linuxbox] had a static ip address
so, 
not unreasonably, I thought that if I want this to work linuxbox should
get 
its address via the same dhcp server as used by the stations. I made
this 
change and manually edited /etc/hosts to reflect the change but I still 
cannot connect via vncviewer to it24 but only to 10.0.3.62. Nor can I
ping 
it24 - though I can ping 10.0.3.62. Dhcp clients running WindowsXP can
pull 
off this "connect to the host name" trick quite successfully. 
 
Is their something here I am missing? 
-----End Original Message-----

Nigel,
  You have mixed up DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) with DNS
(Domain Name Services).  They are not the same.  DHCP issues IP
addresses to individual machines while DNS is the service that will
convert names to IP Addresses.  Try looking in your /etc/resolv.conf
file (or use the gui interface to change it) and set the DNS server IP
(must be IP) to the same DNS server your Windows boxes are using.  You
should be able to find out which DNS server they are using by opening a
command prompt and typing "ipconfig /all" and you will see listed your
DNS Servers.  There can be more than one, so just take the first one and
put it first in your /etc/resolv.conf file.  On an explanatory note, you
probably have your windows boxes setup to get the DNS server from the
DHCP server as well as an IP address, while on your linux box you don't.
I would move your linux box back to a static IP if it is a server.

Andrew Farnsworth


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