[En-Nut-Discussion] Register hostname for Ethernut

[Nathan Moore]

On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 10:11 AM, Bernd Walter <enut at cicely.de> wrote:

> On Fri, Dec 04, 2009 at 03:41:22PM +0100, Daniel wrote:
> >
> > But this is not a problem of Ethernut, it is part of the network setup.
> > It is the task of your customer to configure his own network.
> > An ethernut device is just a node in the network.
> > In the same thing as a phone device is not responsible for making a
> public
> > phonebok entry.
> >
> > You might think about cheap DSL routers, which often provide such a
> > functionality, but this is only possible because they usually provide the
> > basic network structure including DNS services.
> >
> > But when I configure a normal PC (running Windows or Linux) with a
> hostname,
> > then I access it in the network via ist hostname. Shouldn't this be
> working
> > with a Ethernut board also?
>
> Even this won't work as you might asume.
> They are usually playing bad tricks to make it work in some corner cases.
> Assigning a hostname is a local task for a device/host.
> Noone knows about it unless it is published via DNS or similar service.
> Microsofts SMB-protocoll, which provides file and printer services, for
> example has its own functionality to retrieve hostnames, but those are
> not internet names and can't be used in a browser to see webpages
> seved by them.
> Those are names used in their own little world and often lead to problems
> when namespaces disagree.
>
> > On my Router with DHCP Server, the Ethernut board's entry has already the
> > hostname "ethernut". But I cannot access it by this name.
>
> Yes, because DHCP is there to provide host configuration, but nothing
> more.
>

It is possible to have a DHCP server register the name on a local DNS
server,
which may run on the same machine as the DHCP server, or even be the same
program.
A similar, but slightly different way would be for a DHCP server and DNS
server to use the
same configuration file to assign both the name and the IP address, since
you are
essentially wanting to map Ethernut MAC addresses to a Domain Name with an
IP address in the middle.
I don't mess with DNS or DHCP servers much, so I only know that it's
possible, not
that it's been done.  It probably has.

Nathan