computer name resolution without domain controller?

F

felixrosbergen

Senior Member
Hi All,

I am plannin all the HA for my new home. I am trying to figure out how many PC's/servers i need in the wiring closet.

Basically plan to use:
- SageTV
- CQC
Maybe some other packages..

One of the things i find important is that you can adress a computer by name on the network rather than the IP. To my knowledge on office type networks the dmonain controller usually does this translation. I have however very little need for a domain controller and doubt that Sage and oher software packages would run well on win2k3 server (e.g. tuner card drivers etc may not be available).

How do i achieve man readable machine names without a domain controller? I know i can modify the 'hosts' file on each PC, but thats a very crude way. I was hoping to simply install a software service on the Sage or CQC server. Any body have experience with this?

If i have to i could install a seperate light win2k3 server, this would also allow some other functions like running a webserver/ftp/vpn etc.

Any advice appreciated.
 
You can probably get by with manually adding them to the hosts file, this was the old school method but if you don't have a bunch of servers and they don't change a bunch it'll work fine.

c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.1.2 MediaServer
192.168.1.3 AutomationServer
192.168.1.4 CCTVServer

on and on...
 
As long as you enable Netbios over TCP/IP in the advanced section of the TCP/IP settings in your network card properties, you shouldn't need anything. Win boxes will resolve over netbios without a local nameserver.

Terry
 
roussell said:
As long as you enable Netbios over TCP/IP in the advanced section of the TCP/IP settings in your network card properties, you shouldn't need anything. Win boxes will resolve over netbios without a local nameserver.

Terry
Click to expand...

He's right. Just take a look in My Network Places. Assuming you are using a workgroup, all the machines should already be listed there by name...
 
eufreka said:
roussell said:
As long as you enable Netbios over TCP/IP in the advanced section of the TCP/IP settings in your network card properties, you shouldn't need anything. Win boxes will resolve over netbios without a local nameserver.

Terry
Click to expand...

He's right. Just take a look in My Network Places. Assuming you are using a workgroup, all the machines should already be listed there by name...
Click to expand...

I know thats how it should work...but it doesnt seem to do that. My laptop can see my desktop that way but the desktop cannot see the laptop...it's possibly a issue with the software firewall on the laptop....

I guess with the new servers I'll try netbios again and worst case edit the host files.

I've wanted to experiment with win2k3 server to get expeirence, but i don't really want to spend the extra money on the hardware and the software.
 
It's probably the firewall...

If you want to run a free DHCP & DNS server, try the Dual DHCP DNS Server , it's absolutely free. You set it up by modifying a text config file and it runs as a service in Windows. It works well and is light weight.

Terry
 
In the "i dunno how mine does it but it does", my workgroup resolves by name just fine without me mucking with the hosts file. I just point it at the machine name, and et voila it all works as if by magic.

I know that doesn't help much, other than to say "well, it *should* work". I'd look into that before doing anything else, as firewall issues will result in other wackiness.

Have you tried typing in the laptop name into the address bar in windows explorer? I used to have a machine where I couldn't browse to it, but I could type it in and it would be fine. I mapped a network drive to it, and life was good.
 
roussell said:
It's probably the firewall...

If you want to run a free DHCP & DNS server, try the Dual DHCP DNS Server , it's absolutely free. You set it up by modifying a text config file and it runs as a service in Windows. It works well and is light weight.

Terry
Click to expand...

Nice find, thanks for that. I was thinking ftfpd32 would do this too but it seems it doesn't deal with the hostname, it will do MAC=IP which is nice.

You can improve netbios by having your DHCP server bind IP>MAC.
 
CollinR said:
roussell said:
It's probably the firewall...

If you want to run a free DHCP & DNS server, try the Dual DHCP DNS Server , it's absolutely free. You set it up by modifying a text config file and it runs as a service in Windows. It works well and is light weight.

Terry
Click to expand...

Nice find, thanks for that. I was thinking ftfpd32 would do this too but it seems it doesn't deal with the hostname, it will do MAC=IP which is nice.

You can improve netbios by having your DHCP server bind IP>MAC.
Click to expand...

I loaded OpenWrt firmware on my linksys router and use dnsmasq, which is a cache-only DNS server. I always statically assign my IP addresses on my network, I have very little trust for DHCP. So I just use the router address as my dns server and put any addresses in it's hosts file.

I used to use hosts files and have each machine download a copy on login from a centralized fileshare, but the OpenWrt solution is much better.
 
Frederick C. Wilt said:
wuench said:
I have very little trust for DHCP
Click to expand...

JOOC why?
Click to expand...

I have had conflicts where my router was handing out addresses already in use. This was with the original linksys firmware. But in my mind, it is just another layer of complexity, and something else to break. And you have to wait for your machine to acquire an address when it boots up. It's just more efficient and reliable to use static addressing.
 
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