[Solved] How to access DHCP client with host name, not IP?

solamour · Last edited by solamour on Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:27 am; edited 1 time in total

My test box at work gets its IP dynamically via the DHCP server, and whenever I restart it (I restart it rather frequently due to the nature of the testing), it gets a new, most of the time, different IP.

I'd like to access this test box using its host name (e.g. "testbox"), not the numeric IP address (e.g. "10.xxx.xxx.xxx"). I get absolutely no help from the IT department, because as far as they are concerned, it's not their problem.

Here is what I've been using. It works, but I'm sure there is a better way to handle it.

1) Whenever the test box restarts and gets a new IP, it saves its IP address in a plain text file and uploads it to a shared depository.
2) Before I connect to the text box, I fetch the IP address text file stored in the shared depository and replace the entry in "/etc/hosts" with it.
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sol

scratch · n00b Joined: 21 Dec 2007 Posts: 10 Location: Iowa

If you absolutely need to bypass IT you could cron that - if a ping to the hostname fails then automatically reup the hosts file.

But arguably your IT should have their DHCP server keeping DNS up to date so you never need to deal with this.

Sorry that you're stuck with that IT dept!
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EOL

cyrillic · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 4:26 am Post subject:

If you can't convince your IT department to get a DNS server that works, then you could try multicast DNS instead.

padoor · Advocate Joined: 30 Dec 2005 Posts: 4185 Location: india

default gateway should remain the same for any dhcp
ping the gateway
in the /etc/resolv.conf you can put search dhcp server address name
mostly the dns will remain the same.
i have almost always got the same ip asigned every time i start the dhcp.
now i have got the ip address and dns specified. no more dhcp now
if the mac address remains the same most times the same ip will be given for regular user.
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reach out a little bit more to catch it (DON'T BELIEVE the advocate part under my user name)

solamour · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 11:05 pm Post subject:

The test box does get the same IP most of the time, but when it is off for a while and boots up, it usually gets a new IP, which doesn't make my job easier.

mDNSResponder does seem promising, so I installed it on both the test box and my main machine (and added the following as described in the installation note).

Malvineous · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 12:27 am Post subject:

If you're on the same LAN segment you could try giving your box and the test box a static IP as well, e.g.

solamour · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:27 am Post subject:

I tried using a different subnet, but it looks like the router doesn't like that. Assigning a static IP seems slightly risky, but heck, I'm not getting any help from the IT people, so I'll try it out for a while and see how it goes. I hope the DHCP server doesn't hand out the IP I picked. Thanks for the suggestions.
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sol

cyrillic · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:56 am Post subject:

solamour · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 9:56 pm Post subject:

"ping testmachine.local" indeed works. Good point.

And I just realized that the static IP I chose conflicts with something on the network, so I'd better stick with mDNS. Thanks everyone for taking time to respond.
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sol