vhost access

[turnbui]

Hello everyone I've been here before with this question but the tip didn't work.
Since then I've read up and tried different options only to be stumped.
I have DNS + DHCP working OK on my Linux box but it seems I'm having to use entries in my /etc/hosts file if I want to access the different vhosts. Whilst this works on the Linux box it doesn't on any of the other XP machines in the LAN, with or without a hosts file.
Naturally I'd rather use the DNS+DHCP to do this on the Linux box and whatever on the XP boxes. If I type

http://192.168.1.7

in the browser on the XP boxes it only shows the first/default vhost.
I changed my vhosts.conf to contain:=

NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
etc

as instructed but to no avail.
Can anyone help please?
Thanks.

 

[RhythmAce]

This is not an apache issue. You need to tell all your xp boxes where your local dns server is. Just add the ip of the linux box to their network configs under dns servers.

 

[turnbui]

Yes, I have done that but how do I define the vhosts to the Linux DNS is my problem. Surely this is part of an apache issue? No?
I used a CNAME but this doesn't work.
ie DIG tony2.homeip.net shows:-

tony2.homeip.net 86400 IN CNAME ian.turnbui.com

where ian.turnbui.com is the FQDN of the Apache2 server.
When I use nsupdate to try to remove the entry:-

turnbui $ nsupdate
> update delete tony2.homeip.net
>
> no SOA record is reported and nsupdate is exited
turnbui $
So obviously this is NOT the way to define the vhost to DNS.

Can you help on this please?

 

[RhythmAce]

This is strictly a dns issue. You say that ian.turnbui.com is a FQDN but it has no address record. This means that it will not resolve because all names MUST resolve to an ip address. As a matter of fact, I see no record for turnbui.com at all. If you want these vhosts to be accessible from the outside world, then they need to have public dns records. If you just was them accessible locally, then you need to setup your dns server properly. Thisd is not the forum for that topic but you may want to read up on dns servers. Start with "man bind" and "man named". These are the man pages for the linux dns server. If you still have trouble, you may want to use webmin to help setup all your servers including bind. You can find it at

http://www.webmin.com

 

[turnbui]

Thanks for tour reply. I didn't exactly explain myself clearly. From outside the LAN there is no problem.
In the end a simple definition for a new zone for homeip.net rather than my naieve attempt to CNAME the homeip.net to turnbui.com solved the problem.
Thanks.