[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

with DHCP, forcing a DNS address at your local computer?



Aside: Most of the clients on my LAN are still at Debian 5.0, as is my main 
computer, which is where I was having this problem.  I don't think the issue 
is Debian 5.0 specific, but I guess it could be.

Background:

I recently made some changes to my LAN, including a change from using static 
IP addresses to having dynamic IP addresses assigned by a DHCP (in the 
router).  I also changed from RCN (cable) to Earthlink (DSL) as my ISP.

As you may or may not know, at least in some cases, Earthlink uses the local 
landline provider (in my case, Verizon) to actually provide the DSL service.

One problem: when my router requests an address on Earthlink's network (or is 
it Verizon's network--I'm not really sure), it gets an IP address and it gets 
DNS server addresses, but those DNS server addresses are Verizon's and not 
Earthlinks.

I've resolved that problem by learning that I can designate DNS addresses in 
the router--so I've put in Earthlinks DNS addresses and these are served 
properly to the clients on the LAN.

Leading up to my question:  But, before I realized I could set those DNS 
addresses in the router, I was attempting to override those addresses on the 
local computers.  I did things like:
   * put the address in /etc/resolv.conf: Doesn't work because it seems 
resolv.conf is periodically overwritten, I'm guessing when the DHCP lease is 
renewed.
   * put the addresses in a line in /etc/network/interfaces, as below, but 
that didn't do the job:
        dns-nameservers 207.69.188.185 207.69.188.186

My question: is there a way, in a client computer being given a dynamic IP 
address from DHCP, to override the DNS addresses provided by the DHCP server?

Thanks!
Randy Kramer

Aside: I am having an intermittent problem with my network--it is possible it 
is related to the Verizon nameservers.  If switching to the Earthlink 
nameservers doesn't solve the problem I will start another thread explaining 
the problem (and what I've done so far to attempt to solve it).



Reply to: