Problem with DHCP, /etc/hosts and GNOME
Julien Olivier
julo at altern.org
Thu Apr 8 17:05:50 UTC 2004
> That's a little easier.... That's what DNS is for.....
>
> /etc/hosts is there to remove the burden from DNS when things are
> *KNOWN*, ie, static IP addresses and hostnames.
>
> DHCP, by definition, is dynamic. Furthermore, a DHCP server [your
> router] is under no obligation to provide you with the same ip address
> every time you boot up [or worse, every time your lease expires!!!].
> Let's say that your lease time is 3600 seconds. Then, every hour, the
> DHCP client is going to request a lease renewal. Usually, the DHCP
> server says 'Fine, here ya go, keep the same one for another 3600
> seconds'. However, it doesn't have to. It could turn around and say
> 'Too bad.. Deal with a new IP/Hostname'. Would you want *all* of those
> to be added to your /etc/hosts? Because, now your old IP address is no
> longer localhost...
OK, thanks for the explanation. I think I get it now.
But what I still don't understand is: why don't I need to configure
anything for my laptop to connect to the internet on Windows XP, but I
have to modify /etc/hosts on Fedora ?
--
Julien Olivier <julo at altern.org>
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