I have this problem since i installed FC5. I have another server which is mandrake 10 and ping by hostname not ip address is fine. I found a solution by adding entry to C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\host (10.0.0.3 dbftpserver) but this is much work to do coz I need to change all Windows PCs here. Does Fedora Core 5 have utility same with mandrake 10 that you won't add entry to hosts on all windows here. Please help me. I'm so desperate with this problem.

LOL I have a similar question like yours.

What you need to do is set up the client computers to the DNS server. From there, the DNS server will dynamically update the IP's of the computers with their respective hostname.

Now my problem is how do we configure the DNS server to dynamically update the hostnames and IP address. LOL

What is doing your DHCP?

Do you have WINS running?

How about local DNS?

Is Samba running on either Linux box?


One solution to this type of problem is to run dnsmasq --
Description: http://www.linux.org/apps/AppId_6060.html
Homepage: http://www.thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/doc.html

It allows your to have a "master" hosts file on the (local) DHCP/DNS server -- it simply uses its own hosts file as part of its DNS resources.

It also allows domain-by-domain, blocking of adservers &c via its dnsmasq.conf, contrasted to host-by-host blocking using hosts. With folks like erasercash(.com) pushing 1000 hosts, this is a welcome simplification.


Another solution may be to have Samba do WINS. Never done that, just heard of it, so I can't be of much help if that's what you need.