Delay when logginng in to FC5 via ssh

[Don Russell]

Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-05-15 at 17:15, Don Russell wrote:
>
>   
>> So, I conclude that ssh is trying to determine the host name of the 
>> machine connecting to it, based on the connecting machine's IP address.
>>     
>
> [...]
>
>   
>> The problem is, it is not practical to code all my private addresses in 
>> /etc/hosts. The network clients use dhcp so of course their addresses 
>> may change.
>>     
>
> The reverse lookup doesn't really have to match the host's
> own idea of it's hostname - it just has to return something
> that you can log.  One approach is to run your own nameserver
> that is primary for your private ranges (no sense in bothering
> the root servers for them...).  Then if you don't want to
> set up the DHCP  server to give out IP addresses tied to
> MAC addresses you can you use names like dchp-ip-number for
> the names you return.


That's an interesting idea.... but... :-)

What is doing the "reverse lookup"? And can I just turn that off? It 
doesn't seem to make much sense to me that I add complexity in the form 
of a dns server that does little more than convert the ip address brom 
binary form to printable characters. I'd rather just skip the reverse 
lookup altogether.

Am I missing some fundamental philosophy here? What's the point of 
reverse look ups in such cases?

Don