On 20110502_095924, Andrei Popescu wrote: > On Lu, 02 mai 11, 00:29:24, Paul E Condon wrote: > > A few days ago, my old consumer grade router died, or seemed to die > > such that I decided to purchase a new consumer grade router. What I > > remembered about how the old router was set up was insufficient to get > > me back up and running with the new router and the old LAN > > configuration. I think my problem has to do with DHCP. I didn't use > > DHCP in the old set up. Instead I had statically defined IP addresses > > in /etc/hosts. I can see good reasons for DHCP, but I have never > > understood how I could get my four Debian hosts to talk to each other > > under DHCP. I see some things that can be configured to have DHCP > > assign fixed IPs to certain devices based on their MAC address, but is > > that what needs to be done? What I'm looking for is the ordinary and > > accepted way to make an ssh connection from one of my boxes to another > > one of my boxes where DHCP is happening. > > I prefere setting up "static" DHCP, if at all possible[1]. If you are > lucky the router can also do local DNS and you are done. > > [1] I lost that feature on the last firmware upgrade on my VDSL modem > > > Also I used rsync to keep backups of files on two different boxes, and > > approx to maintain a local Debian repository. The way I have done this > > in the past is dependent on local search. > > I don't understand what you mean here. Anyway, for a SOHO lan here are a > few ideas > > 1. assign static IPs (either via the DHCP server or each host's config) > > + robust > + if set up via the router it's not difficult to maintain > - accessing by IP is not "nice" and editing each host's /etc/hosts file > is a pain > > 2. local DNS server. If you're lucky the consumer router can do that, > then it doesn't matter if hosts are on DHCP or not. If your router runs > Debian or some Linux dnsmasq is excelent for this purpose and easy to > setup. > > + convenient > - setup is router dependent > > 3. mDNS. No, don't throw holly water, it really works... I think :p > Just install libnss-mdns on all hosts (which will also pull > avahi-daemon). If you didn't change /etc/nsswitch.conf this will > automatically allow you to access the host via host-name.local, > irrespective of DHCP or static IP > > + very convenient and easy to setup, no fiddling with config files > + independent of any central config (useful if you have a flaky router) > - still needs some way of assigning IPs, unless your router supports > zeroconf and you also install avahi-autoipd > - depends on hidden-magic type software > > Regards, > Andrei
Thanks, Andrei. This is very helpful. But while you were responding, Netgear presented a new problem. The web interface on the router no longer works with iceweasel. It did work fine a few hours ago but now I can only get a one line message (folded here for email): "Please upgrade to a version 4 or higher browser so that you can use this setup tool (and see lots of great sites on the Internet!) " Iceweasel in Squeeze seems to be version 3.5.18 of Firefox. I find it scary that they can know that and shut be down late a night for a violation of their vision of their own importance. I was going to look at the browser interface to see if I could determine whether the router included local DNS but ... this new development. Whatever happens with this router after the Sun comes up and I go back to the store where I bought it, I'll still need to improve my knowledge. I think I did have static IPs via DHCP. There was a small table in which I could fill in IPaddr, an arbitrary name, and a MAC address. But that by itself didn't seem to be a whole solution. I would need to hand construct an /etc/hosts file or commit the IPaddresses to memory, or something. Is dnsmasq the name of a program or Debian package? I could run a daemon on one of the computers and add the IP of that host to the list of DNS servers. I guess that is what mDNS is. I have never heard of it. Anyway, I can't have a router that can have its administrative interface shutdown without warning in the middle of the night. I'll have to solve that before I can respond to your suggestions. Thanks. -- Paul E Condon pecon...@mesanetworks.net -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110502083554.gb15...@big.lan.gnu
