Slackware mail server + /etc/hosts

def1 · 05-10-2010, 04:09 AM

All clients on the LAN, have to have their /etc/hosts file edited for my server to resolve their hostnames/LAN ip addresses. Both Windows/Mac/Linux.

That shouldn't be necessary as all other stanzas are correct. If the hosts file is not ammended my maillog shows connect from unknown rip="my_external_address" when in fact it should say connect from "host" rip=192.168.0.20

Not to sure if it is an iptables issue as I have nothing for this configuration.

/etc/hosts file on the server has all required hostnames and ip addresses

Would anyone know why this happens? I originally presumed /etc/hosts on the client machines was unneccessary.

sparc86 · 05-10-2010, 07:49 AM

A simple DNS server (how about BIND ?) + DHCP server pointing the correct DNS IP address to the clients, would solve your problem.

Of course each host would need to have a running DHCP client but that's usually not a problem.

def1 · 05-10-2010, 05:09 PM

Hi sparc86, bind setup was going to be an option if there wasn't another solution, so will look into that.

Thanks

Chuck56 · 05-10-2010, 06:22 PM

Bind is a good suggestion. Slackware also offers dnsmasq which is simple to setup and well suited for this type of situation.

def1 · 05-10-2010, 06:54 PM

Funny you said that chuck56, setting up dnsmasq now and seems to be working, just test it a little.

the missues is away and is complaining she can't connect to the server so hopefully this will fix things for her

sparc86 · 05-11-2010, 08:02 AM

def1, is everything properly working now ?

def1 · 05-11-2010, 03:38 PM

Hi Sparc86

Set up dnsmasq and everything seems to be good actually. Except for a laptop which still seems to have our external ip address resloved instead of 192.168.0.54, but as we're not using it much, it should be ok.

But dnsmasq was very simple

Thanks all

sparc86 · 05-12-2010, 08:27 AM

Maybe the laptop has a static IP address setup instead of DHCP? Sounds like that's the problem.

catkin · 05-12-2010, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by def1

Set up dnsmasq and everything seems to be good actually. Except for a laptop which still seems to have our external ip address resloved instead of 192.168.0.54, but as we're not using it much, it should be ok.

Have a look at this thread. The solution may also speed up name resolution on the other machines.

def1 · 05-12-2010, 04:15 PM

Hi All,
Yes all clients on the LAN have static addresses. So looking at the thread that catkin kindly posted, I'll edit dnsmasq a little and see what happens.

Once again thanks guys! Much appreciated

sparc86 · 05-13-2010, 12:48 AM

if the DHCP system in dnsmasq doesn't works, you can try using DHCPD itself and use dnsmasq only for dns-cache.

I will copy you my dhcpd.conf (a little modified, because mine was really a little bit more complex thus some specific issues in my network)

Quote:

authoritative;
ddns-update-style interim;

default-lease-time 900;
max-lease-time 9200;
option domain-name-servers 192.168.0.1, 8.8.8.8;

################################
subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.1;
option routers 192.168.1.1;
range 192.168.1.3 192.168.1.60;
}

def1 · 05-13-2010, 04:11 AM

Thanks sparc86, have been quite busy, so will test a lot more options. Currently it's looking a little "weak"!!

Once again, appreciate your help!