The host map or host table (DNS) is like the White Pages, it's what your computer uses to look up IPs for hostnames and hostnames for IPs.
The DNS your ISP hands you is their copy of the public one, but you are running a local domain (the 192.168.1.x subnet) which their server will not have - your internal hostnames are not listed in their phone book, and won't be.
Normal DHCP config hands out DNS as well as IP, so the router gets it from your ISP and gives it to the machines. Most routers will let you use them as a DNS, so you can tell it to keep a table and then append the router as one of the DNS it assigns to your linux boxes.
You'll probably want to look up the configuration process in the instruction manual BEFORE you try to set it, because if you make a mistake you won't be able to see the internet until you fix it, so download the documentation now if you don't have the booklet.
Alternatively you can alter one of the machines to be a DNS but then you have to assign it manually in the other machine or in the router, it's easier if there are only 2 or 3 machines to use the router if it is capable.
While you're in the router, change its internal address to 192.168.1.100 and have it assign IPs starting with .101, .102, etc. leaving it at .1 is not as bad as keeping the factory default password, but it's still asking for trouble.
Jason
Christopher J. Bottaro wrote:
Simple setup. I have a router that assigns IP addresses by DHCP. I have two linux machines: compa and compb which get their IP addresses using DHCP with the router. From compa, I want to be able to say "ping compb" instead of having to use ifconfig on compb to figure out what its IP address is, then ping it (i.e. "ping 192.168.1.3").
How is this possible? Manually editing the /etc/hosts file doesn't work because the IP addresses can change at boot (or whenever DHCP is used to get a new address).
Thanks.
