I have a local network with two box's running fedora core 2 and roommates mac running os X, all behind a router with a dns server and a cable connection that is also a dynamic ip. I would like to reference the file server by name in my fstab config files since the ip address change occasionally. I have thought about using static IP behind the router, but I don't want to intrude on my roommates connection (and I want to learn how to figure this out). How would I go about setting this up? Something to where my fstab file would have "fileserver:/sharedfiles' instead of an ip. Already looked at bind and named possibilities, but its not clear to me if that can even solve the problem. Where should I go with this? What are my options?

I think you should be able to access the fileserver by using any netbios share browser. If your fileserver doesn't run the netbios service (Windows) / SAMBA (Linux) then do it. You would then be able to access the fileserver by its netbios name. You can even specify it in the fstab using the netbios name of the fileserver.

If you only want to use the server on the Intra net :
1.
Check if the router supports FIXED adresses (my vigor does) In that case you can tell the router that the adress for the server is always the same. (is is not static it is fixed!) It may be that you have to put the server name and adress of the server in the HOSTS file of the other boxes(not for winboxes but for linux).
2.
You can give the server an adress in the subnet but above the range of adresses the dhcp from the router assigns. ==If your network is 168.100.1.1 subnet 255.255.255.0 ~ Normaly the router / dhcp takes the first 10 adresses the others are give to the boxes that are asking for an adress. Normally there is a pool count, you can order your router not to give out more adresses then say 100. In that case number ~1 to ~10 and ~11 to 110 are the adresses in the network, given by the dhcp. The adresses 111 to say 250 are free ( you can't use some of the last adresses ). Assign one of these adresses to the server. Then you have to make an entry in the hosts file for the router.

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