DHCP client assigns an invalid hostname (RH9)

[Aubrey Barnard]

To whomever may be kind enough to answer:

My problem is that I have been assigned an invalid hostname on my RH9
system.

I started getting cable internet service from Charter earlier this summer.
My previous ISP and network administration was my college. Since starting
with Charter, I have not been assigned a proper host name. I contacted
Charter, but they didn't think there was anything wrong, so I am trying
here to see if it is possibly a client-side issue. No issue existed when
on my college network.

When I boot my computer, I am assigned a hostname such as 'dhcp-521-7' (it
varies). The problem is that I cannot (and certain programs cannot)
resolve this to an IP address. Essentially, the hostname I am assigned
does not match what the DNS servers say that my hostname should be. For
example, 'hostname -i' fails, and so does the library call
'gethostbyname'. To illustrate, I give the following outputs. Running
ifconfig produces the following:

# ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:02:B3:B6:A8:C1
          inet addr:68.190.160.235  Bcast:255.255.255.255 
Mask:255.255.240.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:1507398 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:75664 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
          RX bytes:115176823 (109.8 Mb)  TX bytes:6818394 (6.5 Mb)
          Interrupt:5 Base address:0xd000 Memory:d5000000-d5000038
 
lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:203 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:203 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:134774 (131.6 Kb)  TX bytes:134774 (131.6 Kb)

These are my leases:

# more /var/lib/dhcp/dhclient-eth0.leases
lease {
  interface "eth0";
  fixed-address 68.190.160.235;
  option subnet-mask 255.255.240.0;
  option time-offset -21600;
  option dhcp-lease-time 25982;
  option routers 68.190.160.1;
  option dhcp-message-type 5;
  option dhcp-server-identifier 68.115.71.9;
  option domain-name-servers 68.115.71.53,24.159.193.40,24.159.222.40;
  option broadcast-address 255.255.255.255;
  option host-name "dhcp-521-7";
  option domain-name "eau.wi.charter.com";
  renew 1 2004/7/26 07:50:21;
  rebind 1 2004/7/26 11:01:34;
  expire 1 2004/7/26 11:55:42;
}
lease {
  interface "eth0";
  fixed-address 68.190.160.235;
  option subnet-mask 255.255.240.0;
  option time-offset -21600;
  option routers 68.190.160.1;
  option dhcp-lease-time 25640;
  option dhcp-message-type 5;
  option domain-name-servers 68.115.71.53,24.159.193.40,24.159.222.40;
  option dhcp-server-identifier 68.115.71.9;
  option broadcast-address 255.255.255.255;
  option host-name "dhcp-521-7";
  option domain-name "eau.wi.charter.com";
  renew 1 2004/7/26 08:05:02;
  rebind 1 2004/7/26 11:02:17;
  expire 1 2004/7/26 11:55:42;
}

The conflict begins when host (or dig) reports a hostname different from
above:

# host -v 68.190.160.235
Trying "235.160.190.68.in-addr.arpa"
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 29783
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 1
 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;235.160.190.68.in-addr.arpa.   IN      PTR
 
;; ANSWER SECTION:
235.160.190.68.in-addr.arpa. 32733 IN   PTR    
c68.190.160.235.eau.wi.charter.com.
 
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
160.190.68.in-addr.arpa. 32733  IN      NS      ns1.jvl.wi.charter.com.
160.190.68.in-addr.arpa. 32733  IN      NS      ns1.mazo.wi.charter.com.
 
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.mazo.wi.charter.com. 32937  IN      A       24.158.0.10
 
Received 154 bytes from 130.71.128.8#53 in 62 ms

I see from this that my hostname should be
'c68.190.160.235.eau.wi.charter.com', which is what the technical support
at Charter told me. My question is whether there is something I can do to
make the hostnames agree. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have
included (hopefully) relevant files below.

Sincerely,
     Aubrey Barnard

P.S. This problem has not caused any visible lack of functionality except
that Gnome reports an error and my network usage is quite high until I
first open a web browser.

# more /etc/resolv.conf
; generated by /sbin/dhclient-script
nameserver 130.71.128.8
nameserver 130.71.96.8
search acc.stolaf.edu

The file '/etc/dhclient.conf' does not exist.



	
		
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