alias name recognition problem

I've got a lan using my xp workstation as the gateway. Internet connection sharing works fine and so does 'primary' name recognition of the 10 boxes on the lan.

Using my xp hosts file to give names and in many cases aliases to the machines e.g.

192.168.0.111 uncleleo raymckegney hoss

Now from my gateway can access 192...111 with any of those names, but from the other lan machines it is only known as uncleleo.

Is there a fix for this, other than explicitely putting each alias on the hosts file of every other machine on my lan?

Marty

 

The way hosts files work is for them to be run on each PC that needs them. Maintaining all those hosts files is hard work though and the reason DNS was developed.

 

Then how can I run DNS for my LAN from my XP workstation? Is that thinking about it the right way?

 

There are shareware DNS server applications available:

http://www.simpledns.com/

Of you can use BIND (the classic Linux DNS server) on a Windows system.

http://www.isc.org/index.pl?/sw/bind/

The other option is to use a router to provide the network internet connection and look for one that lets you customize its DNS settings (most internet routers act as DNS proxies).

The Microsoft way would be to install a server on the network. Microsoft server operating systems come with a DNS server as an option.

It all depends on how many PCs you have and how much time you want to spend on the problem. If the number is small, you may want to stick with HOSTS files or try the shareware DNS server option.

You may also want to think carefully about using multiple names for the same PC. The simplest solution may be to stick to one name. May I ask why you need multiple computer names? It may be you are trying to do something that is more easily done another way.

 

Reggie,

First, thanks for explaining the options available and the links. You're right that time is a major factor. I've been building up a home office lan over the years and also teaching myself a bit about setting up 'nix servers and all that comes with it.

The reason for having several names for the same box is strictly for having lan accessible websites with different names. Five of my ten lan pc's run freebsd or linux and each of those run apache, plus my laptop and desktop workstations running xp also run apache.

So I've been finding it can be convenient - since the other 3 pc's are my kids' - to set up a website home page with info that is easy for everyone at home to remember. It makes life easier. But to continue to expand on that concept I'm going to have to find some sort of solutions; of course there are many options here.

Now I've learned a bit more and thank you for that. I think the best solution for me would be to set up one of my nix pc's as the lan router.

 

If you are familiar with Linux, then using a Linux system as you network DNS server would be a sensible way forward.

An alternative approach may be to use virtual name spaces in apache. If it was me I'd set up a single linux box to act as your server. Install Apache on that pc (and DNS if still necessary) and then use virtual directories for each of the users. The virtual folders will point to the location where each user keeps their web info. So you could have:

severname/tom/
servername/dick/
servername/harry/

With each of those virtual directories pointing at either a folder on the server, or another location on the network.