[COLUG] Lan hostname to IP resolution

[Rob Funk]

William Yang wrote:
> Things like OpenWRT are a good solution for something like this.  I'm
> also personally fond of m0n0wall on PC-style hardware.  There are a lot
> of solutions for the NAT/Firewall with some level of DNS/DHCP
> functionality and maybe a VPN solution out there.

Yes, I like m0n0wall too (I run it on a Soekris box at work), though it's 
a bit limited compared to DD-WRT and similar systems.  There's a less 
limited offshoot of m0n0wall (pfsense), but that also requires more 
hardware capabilities.

> The real thinking process can be summarized in a sentence, though: 
> don't just use some low-end consumer-grade platform, if you want to do
> more than low-end consumers are going to want to do:  use a set of
> tools that can do what you want.

One caveat to that, though, is that these days low-end consumer-grade 
hardware can often do much more than the low-end consumer-grade software 
built into it is capable of.  Putting more powerful software into cheap 
hardware makes a world of difference.  (Not to mention being quieter and 
consuming less power than the higher-end hardware.)


BTW, I agree with you that DHCP is a good thing, but when you can't 
control address assignment or at least get consistent address assignment 
then it can be worse than just editing the network config on a few 
machines.

-- 
==============================|   "A microscope locked in on one point
 Rob Funk <rfunk at funknet.net> |Never sees what kind of room that it's in"
 http://www.funknet.net/rfunk |    -- Chris Mars, "Stuck in Rewind"