SilverSurfer60 Posted June 21, 2009 Report Share Posted June 21, 2009 I am having problems with the above router and the main problem is on the web interface page 'Attached Devices' my linux network computers are all listed as UNKNOWN for device name, excpet for one. They all are assigned ip addresses and I can access each one by that ip address. I also have a (cough) Windows machine connected and was a breeze to set up and is displayed correctly. Now, I can ping the one Linux machine that is listed by name from the Windows machine and I have access to a couple of folders that are shared via samba on the Windows machine. The problem is I cannot do the opposite from the Linux machine(s). I could use static ip addresses on each machine and forget about name resolution, however it's a pain if I add or remove a machine from the system, and I can't for the life of me list the other machines on the Windows one like we do with Linux (/etc/hosts). I hope I am making sense here. Ian: I saw in one of the many posts that I have trawled through the you used exactly the same router as I have, maybe you could help with this one please? or anyone else that knows what I'm talking about. Thank You. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted June 21, 2009 Report Share Posted June 21, 2009 You can simply define each machine's name to your HOSTS file. Factly, you can also do the same at your windoze HOSTS file, and not bother at all on how the attached machines display on the router's web UI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverSurfer60 Posted June 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2009 Thank you Scarecrow the answer I was looking for was how to define the hosts on the Windows machine. I had totally forgotten how. I wasn't bothered about the naming just the fact that I needed the resolution of the ip address to make life a bit easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted June 21, 2009 Report Share Posted June 21, 2009 Hi I just came across the post now, been away all weekend. Yes I have the same router, and I believe I also had this but never bothered to look into why some were named and some were not. I'm not currently using the router, but I'll get it out the cupboard and maybe see if I can figure out how the computer should pass the name back to the router. Although I would have thought using DHCP should help this. When I had static, they all appeared as unknown if I remember correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverSurfer60 Posted June 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2009 Thank you Ian, I hope you had a good time. Don't put yourself out unless you feel like having a bit of fun. The DHCP works just fine, however the names just do not get resolved from the Linux machines. I have been trying for about 3 days now and just gave up and assigned them static addresses and edited the hosts file on each machine. What was throwing me was not being able to remember if Windows XP had a similar file, and it does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted June 22, 2009 Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 (edited) Yes, it does: under /windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts Normally, a typical windoze user touches that file to prevent some warezed applications calling home, but- as you can clearly see, it;s useful for other tasks as well... :D DHCP may work, but on principle I prefer the simple, and working solution: Static LAN IP's. In some cases it's the only way to have services running properly at your LAN without having to enable the measly uPnP protocol. Edited June 22, 2009 by scarecrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted June 22, 2009 Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 I currently have DHCP but assigning IP addresses to the MAC's and so it's effectively the same as having static IP's. The only thing, I don't have to manually configure the computer. So if I reinstall, and leave it as DHCP it'll still have the same IP. And then, if I go somewhere else and connect my machine, I don't have to reconfigure my network on my laptop all the time :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverSurfer60 Posted June 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 I see the case of both your set-ups, Ian and Scarecrow, which are both quite reasonable. The problem that I was having was that unless I edited the hosts file I had to remember each machines ip address. Now I only have a few to worry about but as I'm not so young anymore :sad: I had trouble remembering which address went with which machine. I have to jot down which address I have assigned to which machine so that I enter the correct information in the hosts file I am working on. Some of the machines are in different rooms of the house. If I just allocate the addresses to MAC's on the router I still cannot access the various machines by name, so it has to be static addresses and hosts files. Thank goodness I not looking after 20 or 30 machines on a network. :wacko: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted June 22, 2009 Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 Thank goodness I not looking after 20 or 30 machines on a network. :wacko: That's when I use a DNS server so that I never have to configure each and every hosts file on each machine :) Of course, if only a couple of machines, it's easy just to edit the hosts file. Luckily, the hosts file on Linux shouldn't get hijacked like the one on Windows does when spyware decides to overwrite it. I'll let you know my outcome with the DG834GT soon if I manage to figure out how to get it to show the name rather than unknown. I've subscribed to this post, so if I don't do it anytime soon, I'll at least be able to find the post easily when I do get to it :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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