If you have 100 boxes, run DNS. Sounds like you want (?) static host names, might as well go for static IP too. Why not just make it all static if they know each other and make assumptions about each other. I just happen to know of an office with about 100 PCs in it, using NIS and NFS means they need a static relationship between machine and IP. (Well, again, it could be some other way but it is already complicated enough.) They have some hosts set with static IP, others get IP from DHCP but it is always the same (DHCP server config knows what IP belongs to what MAC address), and a small number of laptops share a pool of IPs and do not have predictable IP. Sounds to me like making everything totally dynamic is overkill in your current situation, and would be skull-crackingly complicated with 100 PCs that think they know a lot about each other. Maybe there is some applicable scale in between. Or just don't assume that any relationship is static, then everything can be dynamic. What would really make you happy? Some sort of peer-to-peer DNS without a server? Maybe you can use MAC addresses somehow? Dave On 10/21/07, zephod@xxxxxxxxxx <zephod@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > ---- Dave Burns <tburns@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > My lazy ignorant suggestion is to reconfigure the router so that you > > know the IP of the two boxes will not change and then use /etc/hosts. > > Yes, I know I could do that. It's OK when there are only 2 boxes but what if I had a small office setup with, say, 100 PCs. It's not so practical then. I'm interested in finding out if there is another way to make this work. > > Steve
