Name resolution not working on local network

[jonantice]

I have:

quagmire 10.0.0.6 (Debian server)
plato 10.0.0.12 (Ubuntu laptop)

I'm not at home right now so I can't post terminal output atm but this is the situation.

This works:

me@plato: ping 10.0.0.6

This works:

me@quagmire: ping 10.0.0.12

This does not work:

me@plato: ping quagmire

This does not work:

me@quagmire: ping plato

With the last two commands the resolved ip address for both of them is the same and obviously not the correct address (200.XXX.YYY.ZZZ, something like that I forget exactly)

This works:

me@plato: ping quagmire.local

This works:

me@quagmire: ping plato.local

So basically when I want to ssh into quagmire I have to use ssh quagmire.local instead of ssh quagmire? I don't want to have to use .local all the time.

[atreyu]

add the appropriate entries in the /etc/hosts file on both machines, e.g.:

10.0.0.6   quagmire quagmire.local # Debian server
10.0.0.12  plato plato.local       # Ubuntu laptop

If there is a duplicate entry above it (for 127.0.0.1) you can remove them. Just be sure to leave 127.0.0.1 localhost or you'll break stuff.

You have to be root to edit the file, so do something like:

sudo gedit /etc/hosts

[jonantice]

My ip addresses are assigned buy dhcp and I do not want to make them static. There are many devices in my home. Even if I did edit the hosts file on all my linux boxes that wouldn't solve the whole network. I need to know how to make name resolution work within my network.

[atreyu]

Who controls the DHCP server? If you do, I believe you can configure what hostname the clients get set to.

Or you can run a bind name server.