DHCP/DNS collision - SuSE10.0
 

I have a SuSE box which must (thanks to Comcast - ISP) use DHCP for DNS. In resolv.conf the SuSE box has the entry IP 192.168.1.71 and is called "wxsat.pinefields.com wxsat". My WinXP boxes, in the same 192.168.1.xxx / pinefields.com net, could, prior to my upgrading wxsat from SuSE 9.2 to 10.0, resolve a reference to "wxsat" correctly. Now I cannot resolve wxsat (e.g., when using wxsat as a POP3 host on my LAN) but can ping or access 192.168.1.71 without a problem. What did I change or break when I went from SuSE 9.2 (which also used DHCP for DNS) to SuSE 10.0? How do I make the name "wxsat" known on my LAN again?

To translate names to ip addresses and vise versa, you can use two methods:

1. Put the host name and ip address in the /etc/hosts file in Linux and c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts in Windows.

2. Configure DNS.

Option 1 is OK for small networks but for it can get out of control after more than 10 computers, because you have to keep updating the hosts files manually. By the way, this is how domain names started, with one static hosts file; that's how it was until a few thousdand computers where referencing each other then DNS was rolled out.

You may want to read a couple of howto's on DNS.

Doh!!! :rolleyes: I should have thought of /etc/hosts! Sigh... that's what comes from mostly doing updates and not fresh installs... Anyway, thanks. Of course that fixed it.