[Techtalk] Host names on a LAN

[Rudy Zijlstra]

On 02/02/2011 04:04 PM, David Sumbler wrote:
> I have 2 desktop computers (one running Ubuntu 9.10 and a new one with
> 10.10) and a handheld one running Windows XP Pro (yuck!)  They are all
> connected to a Netgear DGN2000 router which is a DHCP server.
>
> The router knows the hostnames of all the computers, but the individual
> conputers don't know each other's names, so when I want to use SSH or
> Samba to connect two together I have to log into the router to find out
> the relevant IP address and then use that.
>    

in a setup like this, the computers will effectively get the same IP 
address each time
(at least that is how the DHCP server should act according to the RFC)

That means that you can create small /etc/hosts files with the relevant 
information

It is unlikely that the SOHO router will support Dynamic DNS updates, 
which would be the alternative.

Rudy
> The easy solution to this problem would, of course, be for me to set up
> fixed IP addresses, which is easy with just 3 computers and 1 router!
>
> But surely there must be a way to get the router to act as a DNS server
> within the LAN, or to inform the client computers of the names of the
> other hosts.  How can this be done?
>
> David
>