On Sunday, January 23, 2022 2:09:27 PM EST Brian wrote: > On Sun 23 Jan 2022 at 13:53:01 -0500, gene heskett wrote: > > On Sunday, January 23, 2022 1:26:56 PM EST Felix Miata wrote: > > > Greg Wooledge composed on 2022-01-23 08:42 (UTC-0500): > > > > On Sun, Jan 23, 2022 at 08:50:56AM +0100, Andrei POPESCU wrote: > > > >> As far as I can tell (with my limited understanding of DNS) it > > > >> only > > > >> makes it easier to share /etc/hosts with no obvious downside. > > > > > > > > If that actually works, that's great news for Gene. It means he > > > > can > > > > duplicate a single /etc/hosts file across all systems without > > > > needing > > > > to bolt on a unique per-system header afterward. > > > > > > I've been sharing the very same hosts file among all my PCs for > > > well > > > over a decade, probably closer to two. > > > > And I have been for 2 decades and change as it once had an amiga as > > one of its clients. > > What advice would you give to a user regarding the benefits of a hosts > file as opposed to more modern techniques?
Because every distro has their own way of arriving at a _usually_ works dhcp setup, the fixed rules for using a hosts file usually results in less need for esoteric knowledge of how a given distro does it, and a far more consistently working local net. We've probably in excess of 60 machines by now at the tv station I retired from in 2002, and a common hosts file similar to my own setup still works fine. The main diff is that we bought a block of 16 addresses from a registrar in about 1995, and only those machines are network allowed outside of the buildings network. Most are sales machines running winderz, so we have had our share of viri. The heart of the system is linux, mostly centos, including the inhouse built videoservers, two of which can record 4 hidef channels each, while playing 4 other programs to air at the same time. They Just Work, unlike commercial winderz stuff that BSODs every 3 hours. dhcp is nice, when it works, but to me it needless complexity and yet anther point of failure. For big systems, its ok, but for under 100 machines, tain't needed. At about 50 machines, a full time tech is needed, if only to clean up the viri in the sales machines. Gotta keep the cash cow fresh you know. ;o) Cheers, Gene Heskett. -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940) If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable. - Louis D. Brandeis Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
