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Thread: Name resolution in a home network with D-Link DI-624

  1. #1
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    Name resolution in a home network with D-Link DI-624

    Hi,

    I have a home network set up through a wireless router D-Link DI-624, which has 4 ethernet ports as well. The router is connected to a ADSL broadband modem, through which I connect to the internet.

    DI-624 has an entry in its web-based administration console, called Local Domain Name. Have given it a value MY-WLAN. Also enabled the option called DNS relay. Also, enabled DHCP server on the router.

    Have three PCs connected to my network, all of them running Ubuntu. These PCs have names - mypc1, mypc2 and mypc3. Am able to ping each one of them from another, using their IP addresses. Am able to access internet as well.

    However, when I try to ping, say mpc2 from mypc1, using 'ping mypc2', it fails. The name mypc2 couldn't be resolved.

    My questions:

    1. What does the Local Domain Name on the DI-624 mean?? Does it implicitly mean that there is a DNS with the router?? If so, how do I attach my PCs to that domain??
    2. If DI-624 does not have a DNS, how could I set up DNS in my home network??

    Any help regarding this will be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks,
    Radha.

  2. #2
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    Re: Name resolution in a home network with D-Link DI-624

    This link explains your first question. My interpretation is that the "Local Domain Name" option is to name the device if it were to be part of a domain. That would enable NetBIOS communication.

    Replying to your 2nd question, you need a DNS server in order to resolve names. Also, if your network and DNS settings are attained via DHCP, chances are the home router is using the DNS settings given by the ISP. The router forwards your DNS requests to the ISP's DNS servers which don't know mypc1, 2, or 3.

    You can set up a DNS server very easily however I only know how to configure it in Fedora 8 which uses the service called named (name daemon). Ubuntu uses bind9 and the configuration files are confusing to me - probably because I'm used to Fedora.

    Once you set up the DNS server, just tell each of your clients to use that address to resolve names, and then the router for DNS queries outside of your network in the /etc/resolv.conf.

    I've a feeling I'll be getting more questions from you...
    Last edited by MaindotC; May 10th, 2008 at 11:09 AM.

  3. #3
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    Re: Name resolution in a home network with D-Link DI-624

    Thanks for the reply strAlan! That was quite helpful.

    A little more about my set up. The ADSL broadband modem gets an IP from the ISP via DHCP. DI-624, the wireless router serves up a sort of intranet (LAN) within the devices that connect to it. All my PCs get an IP like 192.168.x.x, from a DHCP server that is running inside the wireless router. The wireless router was setup to point to the ISP's DNS, so I guess thats how name-to-address resolution happens for the internet.

    Rightly guessed, I do have a few more questions.

    After your reply, I searched for Bind9 and skimmed through a few links that came up. Looks like thats the way to go about. However, all the articles talked about PCs that have static IP addresses and how they should be configured in Bind9's config files.

    I would like to get Bind9 working with dynamic addresses - my PCs get their addresses through DHCP on the wireless router. Any pointers in this matter will be of great help!

    In the MS Windows world, the network settings give a way to add a PC to a domain. The user will have to mention the name of the domain and credentials powerful enough to add it to the domain. I guess there's a server running a DNS, and clients registering themselves by attaching themselves to the domain.

    In Bind9, am assuming its somewhat similar. We have a server that's running Bind9. But what is the infrastructure on the client's front which will allow the client to 'register' themselves/ 'attach' themselves to the domain??

    Is there some UI based application that the clients could run to attach the client to the domain?? That would make life a lot simpler for noobs like me!

    Any help, again, will be greatly appreciated.

    Regards,
    Radha.

  4. #4
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    Re: Name resolution in a home network with D-Link DI-624

    I don't really have the time to learn Bind9 because I have final exams this week but if you have any interest in using a Fedora box I can send you the configuration files and tell you how to configure them to your needs. I'm sure all you have to do is read the Bind9 documentation but at this time I don't have time for it.

    If you'll entertain the idea of doing it in Fedora I can send you the stuff - don't need to worry about Windows domains or anything like that. You just need to install the package called named and there are three files you edit - it's really easy. Let me know!

  5. #5
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    Re: Name resolution in a home network with D-Link DI-624

    Quote Originally Posted by sradhakrishna View Post
    Thanks for the reply strAlan! That was quite helpful.

    I would like to get Bind9 working with dynamic addresses - my PCs get their addresses through DHCP on the wireless router. Any pointers in this matter will be of great help!

    In the MS Windows world, the network settings give a way to add a PC to a domain. The user will have to mention the name of the domain and credentials powerful enough to add it to the domain. I guess there's a server running a DNS, and clients registering themselves by attaching themselves to the domain.

    In Bind9, am assuming its somewhat similar. We have a server that's running Bind9. But what is the infrastructure on the client's front which will allow the client to 'register' themselves/ 'attach' themselves to the domain??

    Is there some UI based application that the clients could run to attach the client to the domain?? That would make life a lot simpler for noobs like me!

    Any help, again, will be greatly appreciated.

    Regards,
    Radha.
    First you are confusing the domains of the internet with Microsoft domains where you login.
    A dns server has a list of names and ip-address
    when your computers enter a name (ex: google.com in firefox for example) it asks the dns server what ip-address belongs to that name
    the other computers don't really "join" a domain, they become a part of it simply by being referred by the dns server.

    you will probably want to host your own dns server (bind9 in ubuntu) and create your own domain (for example, on my network i created the "home" domain with records for "server.home", "laptop.home" etc..) and your computers can talk to each other with mypc1.domain

    you would simply have to edit the files /etc/resolv.conf on each computer to read something like this:
    Code:
    nameserver ip.of.dns.server
    search name_of_domain
    the "search" allows you to type mypc1 instead of mypc1.domain

    to get this to work with dynamic ip-address you would want to host your own dhcp-server (dhcp3-server) and configure dynamic-dns. that way when your server computer gives ip-addresses to your other computers, it will also update the dns server so all your computers can talk to each other, without them having static ip-addresses
    ***your dns server (which, i'm assuming will also be your dhcp-server) must have a static ip address.
    to configure dynamic-dns: first create your domain (there are many guides online) then google a guide for dynamic-dns (there are a few out there that will help you out)

    after you have it all set up, you will have to turn off dhcp on your router

    EDIT: o, and for a graphical solution you can install webmin (download the .deb from their website) or install gbindadmin and gdhcpd. i suggest editing the configuration files by hand as you learn more that way and, once you're finished you will understand how it all works - which is always a perk
    if editing configuration files isn't your thing, i can vouch for webmin - it works very well
    Last edited by mbarak; May 12th, 2008 at 04:11 AM.

  6. #6
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    Re: Name resolution in a home network with D-Link DI-624

    I used GadminTools for BIND and it was pretty sweet. Have you configured Bind9 before?

  7. #7
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    Re: Name resolution in a home network with D-Link DI-624

    yes i have - do you need help with something?
    Last edited by mbarak; May 12th, 2008 at 02:07 PM.

  8. #8
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    Re: Name resolution in a home network with D-Link DI-624

    If I could have a shortcut guide for configuring it I'd appreciate it. I just don't have time to read the documentation. It's up to you.

  9. #9
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    Re: Name resolution in a home network with D-Link DI-624

    install the dns server and dhcp server with this command:
    Code:
    sudo apt-get install bind9 dhcp3-server
    in the file /etc/bind/named.conf.options
    change this line
    Code:
    forwarders {
             192.168.1.1;
         };
    *change 192.168.1.1 to your isp's (or your routers) dns server (or servers)

    in the file /etc/bind/named.conf.local
    you have to declare your zones - both the forward zone and reverse zone
    Code:
    zone "example.com" {
        file "/etc/bind/zones/example.com/forward";
        type master;
    };
    
    zone "1.168.192.in-addr.arpa" {
        file "/etc/bind/zones/example.com/reverse";
        type master;
    };
    you can put the zone files anywhere readable by the bind user/group (i.e. - under the /etc/bind/ folder would be alright)

    then you make your zone files like this:
    forward zone
    Code:
    $TTL    86400
    @    IN    SOA    name.of.nameserver. email.address.hotmail.com (
                  2008050900        ; Serial (can be anything (use date+serial) increment when you change the file
                 604800        ; Refresh
                  86400        ; Retry
                2419200        ; Expire
                  86400 )    ; Negative Cache TTL
    ;
    @    IN    NS        name.of.nameserver
    @        MX    10    name.of.mailserver
    name.of.nameserver       A    192.168.1.1
    comp2                            A    192.168.1.2
    alternativename              CNAME comp2
    outside                           CNAME finish.outside.domains.with. ;finish outside domains with a period
    reverse zone:
    Code:
    1.168.192.in-addr.arpa    IN SOA    name.server. email.address. (
                    2008050900 ; serial
                    604800     ; refresh (1 week)
                    86400      ; retry (1 day)
                    2419200    ; expire (4 weeks)
                    86400      ; minimum (1 day)
                    )
                NS    nameserver.example.com. ; don't forget the dot at the end
    1            PTR    nameserer.example.com.
    2            PTR    comp2.example.com
    and, unless i did something really wrong, that should work.
    just change the /etc/resolv.conf to say:
    Code:
    search example.com
    nameserver ip.of.dns.server
    test it with nslookup (enter a bunch of domains (ex: google.com) and your local domains (ex: comp2)

    or, try
    dig comp2.example.com
    and dig -x ip.address

  10. #10
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    Re: Name resolution in a home network with D-Link DI-624

    Hey, mbarak - thanks for posting these instructions. I don't think I'll be able to test it anytime soon but I'll bookmark this.

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