10:21 p.m.
As promised, here are the results of my experiments on putting a DNS server on my Linksys
router.
After a little research I found the DD-WRT project (http://www.dd-wrt.com/) which looked
like it would do what I wanted by using the DNS forwarder (DNSmasq) feature.
A quick read of the documentation makes you very aware of the term "bricking"
your router, ie flashing the router firmware incorrectly, thereby totally and possibly
irrecoverably breaking it. So after a second, thorough read of the documentation, taking
the precautions of noting all of the current settings of the router and copying the online
instructions to local files, I sucessfully flashed the router with the mini version of the
DD-WRT firmware. There are warnings about only using IE to upgrade from the original
Linksys firmware. The warnings may be out of date now, but I heeded them anyway. Once the
DD-WRT firmware is installed, any browser can be used for futher upgrades. I got a scare
at first because I couldn't log in to the router after I had upgraded. Then I
remembered, that DD-WRT uses root as the default login instead of nothing.
Next, I configured the router according to my old settings and activated DNSmasq.
Everything appeared to be working correctly. I could browse the internet from both my
Fedora box and the Vista box. I could also ping the Vista box or the router from the
Fedora box just by typing 'ping Vista' or ping DD-WRT.
I did manage to screw someyhing up while I was feeling very pleased with myself and poking
around the various screens. The router somehow lost the host name of my Fedora box and I
could no longer ping myself. I tried restarting networking, rebooting the router and
rebooting the Fedora box with no luck. Eventually, I was able to get it back by creating a
dhclient.conf file and putting a send hostname clause it in. It still worked when I
deleted the dhclient file, so I don't really know what was happening there.
Now the only remaining problem was that the Windows box could not ping either itself, the
router or the Fedora box. I found the answer in the DNSmasq FAQ. Apparently, Windows
machines do not use DNS when looking up machine names that don't contain a
'.', they just try to use WINS. This can be verified by typing 'ping
my_local_machine' which will fail and 'ping my_loca_machine.' which suceeds.
The solution is to set a domain name in the DHCP server and use the domain-required and
expand-hosts options. The Windows machine must also be set up to use 'mydomain'
DNS suffix for this connection. Now, when I type 'ping DD_WRT' from either the
Fedora box or the Windows box, I get a response from host.mydomain. Here is the windows
results:
C:\> ping DD-WRT
pinging DD-WRT.mydomain [192.168.1.1] with 32 bytes of data :
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1 :
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss)
Approximate round trip time in ms:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 1ms, Average = 1ms
Now the only problem left, and it's not really a problem, just a curiousity, is that
the Windows box cannot ping itself. I might try to update to the standard version of the
firmware next weekend.
If anybody would like more details, just let me know.
Steve
---- zephod(a)cfl.rr.com wrote:
It seems like the solution is to set up a local DNS server on the
same machine as the the DHCP server. Some people suggested putting the DHCP server on the
Fedora box but it is usually not on during the day which would be a problem for the
Windows box which usually is. I'm going to do a little research and see if I can put a
DNS server on the Linksys.
Thanks to all who responded on this. I'll report back on my progress.
Steve
---- Adalbert Prokop <adalbert.prokop(a)gmx.de> wrote:
> zephod(a)cfl.rr.com wrote on Sunday 21 October 2007:
>
> > Here is my simple and, I suspect, very common setup: 2 PCs, one FC6
> > Linux, one Windows Vista and a Linksys wireless router. A DHCP server
> > on the Linksys determines the IP addresses of the 2 machines.
>
> > My question is: is it possible for either machine to ping the other
> > without having to make an entry in its local hosts file?
>
> At least not only with DHCP. It is only for assigning IP addresses and
> parameters to network devices. If you want name-to-address resolving you
> need (an internal) DNS server. That could be your Linksys router. I don't
> know if the original firmware has a DNS server, but WRT54G is flashable.
> That means you can install a small Linux distro on it and within a DNS
> server (dnsmasq or bind or ...). Look here
>
> http://www.freewrt.org/trac/wiki/Documentation/TargetSystems
>
> If you cannot use a DNS server you could use Bonjour/Zeroconf for address
> resolving. Apples Bonjour is available for Windows and Linux has its own
> implementations of the mDNS (multicast DNS) protocoll, e.g. mDNSresponder
> or avahi. mDNS is simmilar to DNS but it does not need a central server
> because every machine is sending broadcast messages on the network
> announcing itself to its neighbours. With help of the nss-mdns package
> you can then resolve the broadcasted names to IP addresses.
>
> For a small office the DHCP/DNS solution is the preferable one.
>
> --
> bye,
> Adalbert
9:43 p.m.
New subject: DHCP & DNS [OT]
On Tue October 30 2007, John Summerfield wrote:
The total distance isn't great, but there are sheets of
colourbond
(painted steel sheeting) in the path, so I have configured a rout around
it using the Linksys, and a D-link (chosen from a selection of one).
Both are prone to dropping).
hmmm...sounds like it could be a job for one of these:
http://www.cantenna.com/
(if you can get up over the steel sheating from the far site)
--
Claude Jones
Brunswick, MD, USA
8:06 p.m.
New subject: DHCP & DNS [OT]
Claude Jones wrote:
On Tue October 30 2007, John Summerfield wrote:
>> If anybody would like more details, just let me know.
> As one who has a Linksys wrt54g (one of those revisions that's
> compatible) I'm very interested in this, and any more information you
> can offer.
>
> In particular, what can you do now that you couldn't before?
>
> I've been sorely tempted to upgrade it to non-linksys firmware; one of
> the problems I have is it tends to die under load, requiring a reset,
> and if there's nobody around, a reset is fairly inconvenient.
Flashing my Linksys is also on my wish/todo-list. There's much discussion
about running Firewall Builder in that environment, and how much more capable
your firewall can be using that scenario. There's links to that information
from the Firewall Builder web site.
I'm also wondering how you've concluded, John, that it's the load causing
your
Linksys to die. I too have a problem of frequently losing the connection
My wireless links from house to office (down the back of the block) is
(was) slower than my ADSL (Until yesterday I had an 11b link).
the linksys sometimes fails when I'm transferring a large file, and very
reliably crashed when I was running X through it.
between my wireless devices and the router, which is cured by a
reboot. I got
around to looking up troubleshooting faqs on the Linksys website yesterday,
and they specifically suggested the possibility of wireless phone system
interference (wireless home phone system, not cell phone). They suggested
changing the Linksys channel from the default 6 to either channel 1 or 11 --
I've set mine to 11 and so far, so good - it's only been about 36 hours, so
it's a bit early to tell.
The total distance isn't great, but there are sheets of colourbond
(painted steel sheeting) in the path, so I have configured a rout around
it using the Linksys, and a D-link (chosen from a selection of one).
Both are prone to dropping).
--
Cheers
John
-- spambait
1aaaaaaa(a)coco.merseine.nu Z1aaaaaaa(a)coco.merseine.nu
-- Advice
http://webfoot.com/advice/email.top.php
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
Please do not reply off-list
7:54 a.m.
New subject: DHCP & DNS [OT]
On Tue October 30 2007, John Summerfield wrote:
> If anybody would like more details, just let me know.
As one who has a Linksys wrt54g (one of those revisions that's
compatible) I'm very interested in this, and any more information you
can offer.
In particular, what can you do now that you couldn't before?
I've been sorely tempted to upgrade it to non-linksys firmware; one of
the problems I have is it tends to die under load, requiring a reset,
and if there's nobody around, a reset is fairly inconvenient.
Flashing my Linksys is also on my wish/todo-list. There's much discussion
about running Firewall Builder in that environment, and how much more capable
your firewall can be using that scenario. There's links to that information
from the Firewall Builder web site.
I'm also wondering how you've concluded, John, that it's the load causing your
Linksys to die. I too have a problem of frequently losing the connection
between my wireless devices and the router, which is cured by a reboot. I got
around to looking up troubleshooting faqs on the Linksys website yesterday,
and they specifically suggested the possibility of wireless phone system
interference (wireless home phone system, not cell phone). They suggested
changing the Linksys channel from the default 6 to either channel 1 or 11 --
I've set mine to 11 and so far, so good - it's only been about 36 hours, so
it's a bit early to tell.
--
Claude Jones
Brunswick, MD, USA
4:44 a.m.
New subject: DHCP & DNS [OT]
zephod(a)cfl.rr.com wrote:
As promised, here are the results of my experiments on putting a DNS
server on my Linksys router.
After a little research I found the DD-WRT project (http://www.dd-wrt.com/) which looked
like it would do what I wanted by using the DNS forwarder (DNSmasq) feature.
A quick read of the documentation makes you very aware of the term "bricking"
your router, ie flashing the router firmware incorrectly, thereby totally and possibly
irrecoverably breaking it. So after a second, thorough read of the documentation, taking
the precautions of noting all of the current settings of the router and copying the online
instructions to local files, I sucessfully flashed the router with the mini version of the
DD-WRT firmware. There are warnings about only using IE to upgrade from the original
Linksys firmware. The warnings may be out of date now, but I heeded them anyway. Once the
DD-WRT firmware is installed, any browser can be used for futher upgrades. I got a scare
at first because I couldn't log in to the router after I had upgraded. Then I
remembered, that DD-WRT uses root as the default login instead of nothing.
Next, I configured the router according to my old settings and activated DNSmasq.
Everything appeared to be working correctly. I could browse the internet from both my
Fedora box and the Vista box. I could also ping the Vista box or the router from the
Fedora box just by typing 'ping Vista' or ping DD-WRT.
I did manage to screw someyhing up while I was feeling very pleased with myself and
poking around the various screens. The router somehow lost the host name of my Fedora box
and I could no longer ping myself. I tried restarting networking, rebooting the router and
rebooting the Fedora box with no luck. Eventually, I was able to get it back by creating a
dhclient.conf file and putting a send hostname clause it in. It still worked when I
deleted the dhclient file, so I don't really know what was happening there.
Now the only remaining problem was that the Windows box could not ping either itself, the
router or the Fedora box. I found the answer in the DNSmasq FAQ. Apparently, Windows
machines do not use DNS when looking up machine names that don't contain a
'.', they just try to use WINS. This can be verified by typing 'ping
my_local_machine' which will fail and 'ping my_loca_machine.' which suceeds.
The solution is to set a domain name in the DHCP server and use the domain-required and
expand-hosts options. The Windows machine must also be set up to use 'mydomain'
DNS suffix for this connection. Now, when I type 'ping DD_WRT' from either the
Fedora box or the Windows box, I get a response from host.mydomain. Here is the windows
results:
C:\> ping DD-WRT
pinging DD-WRT.mydomain [192.168.1.1] with 32 bytes of data :
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1 :
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss)
Approximate round trip time in ms:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 1ms, Average = 1ms
Now the only problem left, and it's not really a problem, just a curiousity, is that
the Windows box cannot ping itself. I might try to update to the standard version of the
firmware next weekend.
If anybody would like more details, just let me know.
As one who has a Linksys wrt54g (one of those revisions that's
compatible) I'm very interested in this, and any more information you
can offer.
In particular, what can you do now that you couldn't before?
I've been sorely tempted to upgrade it to non-linksys firmware; one of
the problems I have is it tends to die under load, requiring a reset,
and if there's nobody around, a reset is fairly inconvenient.
Steve
---- zephod(a)cfl.rr.com wrote:
> It seems like the solution is to set up a local DNS server on the same machine as the
the DHCP server. Some people suggested putting the DHCP server on the Fedora box but it is
usually not on during the day which would be a problem for the Windows box which usually
is. I'm going to do a little research and see if I can put a DNS server on the
Linksys.
>
> Thanks to all who responded on this. I'll report back on my progress.
>
> Steve
>
> ---- Adalbert Prokop <adalbert.prokop(a)gmx.de> wrote:
>> zephod(a)cfl.rr.com wrote on Sunday 21 October 2007:
>>
>>> Here is my simple and, I suspect, very common setup: 2 PCs, one FC6
>>> Linux, one Windows Vista and a Linksys wireless router. A DHCP server
>>> on the Linksys determines the IP addresses of the 2 machines.
>>> My question is: is it possible for either machine to ping the other
>>> without having to make an entry in its local hosts file?
>> At least not only with DHCP. It is only for assigning IP addresses and
>> parameters to network devices. If you want name-to-address resolving you
>> need (an internal) DNS server. That could be your Linksys router. I don't
>> know if the original firmware has a DNS server, but WRT54G is flashable.
>> That means you can install a small Linux distro on it and within a DNS
>> server (dnsmasq or bind or ...). Look here
>>
>> http://www.freewrt.org/trac/wiki/Documentation/TargetSystems
>>
>> If you cannot use a DNS server you could use Bonjour/Zeroconf for address
>> resolving. Apples Bonjour is available for Windows and Linux has its own
>> implementations of the mDNS (multicast DNS) protocoll, e.g. mDNSresponder
>> or avahi. mDNS is simmilar to DNS but it does not need a central server
>> because every machine is sending broadcast messages on the network
>> announcing itself to its neighbours. With help of the nss-mdns package
>> you can then resolve the broadcasted names to IP addresses.
>>
>> For a small office the DHCP/DNS solution is the preferable one.
>>
>> --
>> bye,
>> Adalbert
--
Cheers
John
-- spambait
1aaaaaaa(a)coco.merseine.nu Z1aaaaaaa(a)coco.merseine.nu
-- Advice
http://webfoot.com/advice/email.top.php
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
Please do not reply off-list
8:36 p.m.
New subject: DHCP & DNS [OT]
Claude Jones wrote:
On Tue October 30 2007, John Summerfield wrote:
> The total distance isn't great, but there are sheets of colourbond
> (painted steel sheeting) in the path, so I have configured a rout around
> it using the Linksys, and a D-link (chosen from a selection of one).
> Both are prone to dropping).
hmmm...sounds like it could be a job for one of these:
http://www.cantenna.com/
(if you can get up over the steel sheating from the far site)
I think when the house renovations are finished, I'll run fresh power
lines (the current ones don't look legal), cat5 and phone wires:-) It's
only about 30 metres. The major problem is my office, it's clad in
steel. I have a detachable antenna sitting in the window space. Because
of the patio and the slope of the land, there's also a steel roof in the
direct path.
--
Cheers
John
-- spambait
1aaaaaaa(a)coco.merseine.nu Z1aaaaaaa(a)coco.merseine.nu
-- Advice
http://webfoot.com/advice/email.top.php
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
Please do not reply off-list
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5 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
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Claude Jones -
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Steve Blackwell