Re: DHCP problem....

[Phil Brutsche <pbrutsch@creighton.edu>]

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far way, someone said...

> I just installed DHCP client on Debian slink machine. It works almost 
> fine.... it just does not pick up the host name :(. It is seen on the 
> network by its IP address only. If I ping it by the name from the local 
> console it responds that the host name is not known (I removed its static 
> IP entry from the "hosts" file).
> Any suggestions will be appreciated :)

This is how I read your message:
1) A computer running slink called elvis (for example) uses DHCP to get
   it's IP# and related information.
2) Someone else on the network tries to ping elvis, and fails
3) Someone on elvis tries to ping elvis, and fails

If this is the case, welcome to DHCP :)  The reason #2 and #3 fails is
because there is no way for another system to find out elvis' IP#, either
because the name 'elvis' wasn't found in /etc/hosts (or the equivalent),
or in DNS, as you found out.  Your solutions are:
1) convince the local system administrator(s) to use Dynamic DNS.  This
   allows the DHCP server to update the DNS server's IP# database
2) convince the local system administrator(s) to give you a static IP#
   somehow, either through DHCP by MAC address or an outright static IP#
   (no DHCP involved)
3) use one of the free dynamic hosting services available on the internet;
   an example is www.dhs.org

-- 
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Phil Brutsche					pbrutsch@creighton.edu

"There are two things that are infinite; Human stupidity and the
universe. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein