On Sunday 09 October 2005 00:43, Greg Wallace wrote:
I had the same setup at one time. It seemed to work ok except if I lost my WAN. In that case, I completely lost my network (no ability to access other machines). I have a Linksys Router that hands out my local network addresses. What I needed to do was to point SuSE to the router instead of letting it pass through and pick up the name servers at my ISP. Now, the router picks up those addresses and serves them up to my local network. If my ISP is down, I still have full access to my other machines because my name server (192.168.1.1) is still up. My local network is, simply, local. On the screen you mention, I see --
Host Name: linux Domain name: local Name Server 1: 192.168.1.1 Domain Search 1: local
Ok, wait... the Linksys has only a DHCP server, not its own DNS server, right? It only points to the ISP's name servers, doesn't it (using the ISP server IP addresses that I typed into it when I first configured it)?? I should be able to name my boxes anything-dot-anywhere, shouldn't I? Am I misunderstanding, or the naming only becomes important for PCs on my LAN that want to talk to each other... and only then if they want to use names rather than IP addresses to talk to each other (Samba, nfs, whatever...)? For example, would it be proper (and cause NO GRIEF...) to use the hostname command in a console, or the YaST hostnaming dialog, - to name this computer "thisbox.ourhouse", and then - to name my wife's computer "thatbox.ourhouse"... and maybe - I'd name my iBook "airhead.ourhouse"......... Is that going to help give me a cozy little LAN, where (say) Samba servers on my PC and on my wife's PC can allow Samba clients on those respective PCs to each access the other's shares? Is that going to have any effect at all on dealings with the ISP through my LinkSys? By explicitly giving the ".ourhouse" part, am I interfering with anything? Right now, this box is "linux.site"... but so is my wife's PC, where I just installed SuSE 10.0 overnight. I'm sure Samba and mail programs aren't going to like that, right? So I need to give them individual names... but where did the ".site" location come from? Was that just a SuSE/YaST default, or did that come from the LinkSys? What happens with DNS? The DNS servers are at two IP addresses at my ISP, somewhere on the far side of my ADSL modem, which is connected to the WAN side of the LinkSyS. What contact ever occurs between my computers and the DNS servers at the ISP? If I opened ports and enabled services like SSH or VNC (just as examples), is a computer out on the internet going to see one of my computers, in here, as "thisbox.ourhouse.magma"? Or does the ISP not even see my PCs and just sees the LinkSys? If the former, just say yes and I can shut up. If the latter, then what does the LinkSys hand out on my LAN besides dynamic IP addresses within a range that I specify? If some third option, then.... boy am I confooooozed! Sorry for all the questions, but I have the feeling that I've mostly got the idea, but that I have one or two things badly wrong and that's how I keep misinterpreting what Samba setup (both server and client), IMAP setup, and other configs are asking me.... and then the client tells me that "no server was found". If there's a nice tutorial that puts all this in one place, just point me. I've gotten into my current mess by reading too many bits and pieces on too many sites or in too many newsgroup or mailing list threads. Thank you kindly, Kevin (getting there, inch by inch by millimeter by...)