Simplify the network

[ronybeck]

This a very vague discription of a problem.  What is the actual problem.  Your Router will always have a dynamic realworld IP address and hostname which is assigned to you by your ISP when you connect.  It should always have a static LAN address.

You should never share IP's or hostnames on static LAN.  If you are adding or removing machines all the time DHCP is great.  But if you are not there is no real benifit.  You should statically assign IP address and always keep the same hostname assigned to the same IP.

You haven't really explained why you need to change the host configuration and for what you are changing the configuration..  Your problem really doesn't make any sense.  It sounds like it is all broken because you are doing it wrong.

Matt_H wrote:
I've got my Amiga, PC, and 2 other boxes connected to the internet through a DHCP router. In order to share devices, hostnames and IP addresses need to match up to the right machine. Since the hostnames are dynamic, whenver I go online, I have to manually check them through the router's configuration utility and then update them in the MiamiDX hosts database.

It works, but it's annoying. Is there an automatic or easier way to do this? I'm using Samba under OS3.9.2.

[ronybeck]

Your not completly wrong.  DHCP is needed to allocate IPs ti the local LAN.  The point is that he doesn't need a DHCP server to simply share an internet connection.  All you need to do is on each machine on the LAN assisgn ips , default gateway  and DNS.  The deafult gateway is  the router.  End of story.

If you need to assign hostnames to each machine then your hostname section in miami will need to be changed once only.  Since the IP's don't change for the machine, the host name will always be assigned to the same IP and hence the same machine.

 If you use MAC caching your defeating the purpose of DHCP on a static LAN any how because it is efectivly the same as assigning static IP's.  MAC caching, or IP leasing, ensures that the same NIC/PC gets the same IP when it connects to the LAN for a defined amount of time.

The only time that laziness could ever justify using DHCP is when you just want plug a machine in to the network, and use the shared network.  If you want to set up servers on your lan then you need to think a bit harder.

Casper is right.  Turn off DHCP if you want to do any serious networking.

Casper wrote:

for best results turn off the DHCP client on the router/acces point and assign all your computers static addresses in thier network setup

I don't think that'll work (somebody correct me if I'm wrong). I think that the router needs to use DHCP to assign IPs so that it knows which computer to forward the internet traffic to. It isn't even possible to turn off DHCP on my router.