RE: Help! Network no longer recognizes AS/400 hostname

Responses inline

At 09:30 AM 3/14/02 -0600, you wrote:
>Ok, I'm learning much more about networking than I wanted to, but
>unfortunately it is necessary.  If you don't mind, couple of more questions
>before I sit down with the networking person:
>
>First off, we are running DNS on a W2K server.
>
>Second, just so I understand this correctly, having the address of the DNS
>server on a particular computer allows that computer to resolve names, but
>does not help other computers to resolve a name to this computer?  That is
>the function of the DNS.

That's right. When you put in www.microsoft.com, your computer connects
with the DNS and gets the real IP address. There's a network of these
servers on the Internet that get updated from a master or masters, I
believe. Internally you build your own.

>Next, how does the DNS server know all the names on the network?  Is there
>an equivalent to the HOSTS file that should contain all the names?  Is this
>maintained manually or by some automatic means?

There's some kind of table, yes. I assume manual upkeep, as how do you know
what textual name someone might invent?


>Also, in going around trying the resolve the problems, I noticed that he had
>setup most of the machines with the AS/400's IP address instead of the name,
>which explains why some were having problems and others weren't.  Is there
>an advantage one way or another?

The reason to use names is that IP addresses can and do change, esp. out in
the Internet. Internally this may happen less often, but still can.
Typically, a server will have a fixed address, but not necessarily. It
COULD be set by a DHCP server, which assigns addresses dynamically.

I think names are much better, as they are easier to remember, and they
don't typically change at all.

The network folks may not have known the name of the 400s, or the 400s may
not yet have had their IP name set up in CFGTCP.


>Many thanks again for all your help!
>Rick
>
>
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