I've got a linux telnet server setup for dhcp in an NT domain, but I can't figure out how to give it a permanent name (like the computer names the rest of the 9x/nt network have).  Right now, we have to find out the ip address every time it starts up so we can telnet in.  I don't have much experience with linux on a network...

thanx
-peter

(Not being a cross-platform networking guru, I hope any who know more will step in ... but I'll give it a try:)

Since Linux operates under standard Unix TCP/IP networking protocols, its hostname will be handled differently than a Windows networking hostname. In a Unix networking situation, the hostname would be controlled by a DNS server. If you have DNS running on NT, you might be able to do it that way.

I know it's possible to get Linux to emulate a Windows network file share, and thus receive a WINS hostname. This is done with Samba (www.samba.org), the open-source software that enables this emulation. The added benefit of this is you would also be able to open Linux files right onto your desktop just by mapping a the Linux fileshare to a drive letter. Most Linux distributions come with Samba, but be aware that Samba configuration takes a little bit of reading. There are also definite security risks if you are on an open network (not to mention, there are security risks with telnet instead of ssh).

If all of this is too much and you want a simple easy work-around, then I recommend you just write a small script that runs every time the Linux system boots, and emails you its current IP address. Let me know if want to do this and don't know how.

Another quick dirty solution would be to reserve a particular IP with the DHCP server for the MAC address on the NIC of the linux box... That way, every time the linux box boots up, it will still get the IP address from the DHCP server, but it will always be the same...

AV
tnedor@yahoo.com