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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!uunet!in1.uu.net!128.230.129.106!news.maxwell.syr.edu!dispatch.news.demon.net!demon!mail2news.demon.co.uk!zyqad.demon.co.uk!news!john From: john@zyqad.co.uk (John Richards) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Hostname for box w/ part time internet connection Date: 01 Jul 1997 11:46:06 GMT Organization: Zyqad Limited, Suite 25, GPT Business Park, Technology Drive, Beeston, NOTTINGHAM, NG9 2ND. Message-ID: <JOHN.97Jul1124606@beethoven.zyqad.co.uk> References: <24aac599.u9t27e.1@slip106.termserv.siu.edu> <t9v7p5.lc2.ln@shift.utell.net> X-Mail2News-User: news@zyqad.co.uk X-Mail2News-Path: zyqad.co.uk!zyqad.co.uk; In-Reply-To: brian@shift.utell.net's message of Mon, 30 Jun 1997 10:46:37 +0100 Lines: 64 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:43761 In article <t9v7p5.lc2.ln@shift.utell.net> brian@shift.utell.net (Brian Somers) writes: This is the key to my saying that hostnames are bogus. If any software transmits your hostname (as distinct from the name found by a reverse-lookup on the interfaces IP), it is *wrong*. I agree with Brian on this point but that comes back to what Jim said re having two A records in the the bind lookup. With my previous example, the 158.152.17.1 address is my hostname (awfulhak.demon.co.uk), but X transmits that to 10.0.1.4..... why ? It should be transmitting the name of 10.0.1.1 'cos that's the network address that belongs on the network on which the traffic is being sent. I don't see why this happens. I run an internal network here 192.168.120. called arbitrarily zyqad.co.uk. We connect to the outside world via one machine 158.152.35.161 (I think). The important thing is that DNS is set up so that the machine name on the internal network is beethoven.zyqad.co.uk but externally we are zyqad.demon.co.uk. As an aside we have have mail forwarding from our ISP so we can be zyqad.co.uk in emails. beethoven here acts as gateway, DNS server, router... - it can't speak your weight but maybe if I... When it talks to the internet it is zyqad.demon.co.uk but internally it is beethoven. A bit schizophrenic (sp?) but no real problem. This also means that I have the whole of the 192.168.120 class C domain, approved for machines that are not Internet connected, to myself - along with anyone else who cares to use these IP addresses internally. As long as none of the traffic internally ever gets out without being masqueraded or whatever I'm OK. So it seems to me that Brian is correct to say the name of the machine doesn't matter, but I would qualify it with "unless that name is sent outside of your domain". IP addresses and hostnames on the Internet do need to be controlled so that hostname lookup can work such as when I wish to connect to www.freebsd.org. Then I need to do a hostname lookup on the Internet for the correct IP address for that name. <snip> The real answer is not to have a hostname - the software that currently thinks it needs a hostname should be made smarter (including the almost infinitely smart/complicated/stupid sendmail) and should determine its interface "context" before it thinks it knows the answer. Of course you should have a hostname they are easier to remember than IP numbers anyday - and who could forget possibly@yes.no ?? Brian <brian@awfulhak.org> <brian@freebsd.org> <http://www.awfulhak.org> Don't _EVER_ lose your sense of humour ! Just my tupen'rth and some batter bits. Bye John -- ***********************Dummy .sig file******************************************