On Sat, 2006-08-26 at 01:42 +0800, Deepak Shrestha wrote: > > Again, they don't... The hosts file only has any bearing on the machine > > it's on. It has nothing to do with other PCs. You can do what you like > > to the hosts file on a machine, and it has no bearing on anything other > > PC. > > > > Just think of it as having a pocket phone book in your pocket. You've > > got a list of friend's names and numbers. It's only of any bearing to > > you as you dial them. If you have the wrong information, you're not > > going to connect. It's not going to stop any of those friends from > > calling each other, your notes don't determine their names and numbers, > > nor would writing your own details down incorrectly stop them from > > calling you. > > Sorry, you are consistently mentioning that /etc/hosts file have > nothing to do but I have just tested editing the file and change my > host name to "zeenet.local.org". Reactivating the network > automatically changed the HOSTNAME= in /etc/sysconfig/network file. > So how is that? > Hi Deepak, I think you have misunderstood what Tim explained: what you did above would work for the computer with hostname "zeenet", i.e., on "zeenet", if I did a "ping zeenet" it would return a reply. If I went to another computer, say it was called "whynet", and I did "ping zeenet", I would get no replies. Changing the hostname in /etc/hosts is similar to changing your real name in real life and not telling anyone else about it. Say, you changed your name to Tom, but told nobody on this list -- if you shouted "Tom",you'd know it's yourself, but nobody on this list would know that. They'd still think you're called Deepak. DNS is like the identity card registry (if your country issues identity cards), or the Department of Motor Vehicles in the US. If you are registered with the identity card registry as "Deepak", then everyone would call you Deepak, and they can reach you at the address that is registered to Deepak.But you need to be registered at the registry first. If you called yourself Tom, but registered yourself as Deepak, then people will continue to call you Deepak and send letters to the address registered under Deepak. So, if you want other computers to find your computer named "zeenet", then you would need a DNS server that had the entry for "zeenet" inside it. Now, for NetBIOS, it is the equivalent of you shouting in a room:" call me Tom ! Call me Tom!" at regular intervals. If the party host is in the room, he will note down your name and say to everyone: "everybody, this is Tom." Even if your name was/is Deepak, everybody would say:"hello, Tom" I think the equivalent of that in Samba is to put the NetBIOS name into your Samba config, but others more knowledgeable may know of another way. Confused yet? Well, that's the best analogy I can think of. If you want a really detailed explanation, try the following: DNS and BIND, 5th Edition, by Cricket Liu and Paul Albitz A really good explanation of how NetBIOS works was in a book on NT4 administration which I read many years ago (1997, I think). I forget the name now. Hope this helps! -- Pascal Chong email: chongym@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx web: http://cymulacrum.net pgp: http://cymulacrum.net/pgp/cymulacrum.asc "La science ne connaît pas de frontière parce que la connaissance appartient à l’humanité. et que c’est la flamme qui illumine le monde." -- Louis Pasteur
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