This weekend I'm going to set up DSL with a modem and Linksys 4-port router...
for my computer and my wife's Win98 box.

Why do I have to enter in resolv.conf:

nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xx
nameserver yyy.yyy.yyy.yy

Dial-up PPP (KPPP in KDE) seems to put entries in that file for me. Won't a
router get this info for me and take care of DNS and NAT.

Is NAT and DNS the same thing (roughly speaking?)

On a Win98 box you I'm told to NOT enter any DNS IPs.

Can anyone explain or point me to a reference on why Slack needs DNS IPs and
Win does not.

Al

A-B C. wrote:
> This weekend I'm going to set up DSL with a modem and Linksys 4-port router...
> for my computer and my wife's Win98 box.
>
> Why do I have to enter in resolv.conf:
>
> nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xx
> nameserver yyy.yyy.yyy.yy
Some isp's provide automatically an dns for you.
the adsl-setup for instance will ask the question if you setup you're
dsl connection.

> Dial-up PPP (KPPP in KDE) seems to put entries in that file for me. Won't a
> router get this info for me and take care of DNS and NAT.
I am pretty convinced that you're isp will auto provide you with the dns
servers.
>
> Is NAT and DNS the same thing (roughly speaking?)
nope, clearly spoken.

> On a Win98 box you I'm told to NOT enter any DNS IPs.

Who told you that ?
To surf the web, u always need dns servers..unless you got all ip's from
the pages you are visiting...


> Can anyone explain or point me to a reference on why Slack needs DNS IPs and
> Win does not.
Both need DNS server ip's
If YOU are not sure about youre ISP's dns, then i AM sure you will find
the appropiate information on you're isp's website.

I Dont have links, but google or youre ISP will give you the correct
information
>
> Al

Hanfsome

Hi.

> Can anyone explain or point me to a reference on why Slack needs DNS IPs
> and Win does not.

Slack don't need DNS IPs. All you have to do is configure /etc/rc.d
rc.inet1.conf.

See my configuration:

# Config information for eth0:
IPADDR[0]=""
NETMASK[0]=""
USE_DHCP[0]="yes"
DHCP_HOSTNAME[0]=""

This enable DHCP on your network card, so this way you pick an IP
automatically.

> Is NAT and DNS the same thing (roughly speaking?)
Nop. NAT (Network Address Translation) is used many times in gateways to
masquerade internal ips (private ips) to the external gateway's ip and vice
versa, so that internall machines have Internet connection.
DNS (Domain Name System) is used to convert internet addresses
(www.domain.com) to IP addresses (213.22.132.65). It's diferent things.


Regards,
Nuno Paquete.

On Fri, 23 Apr 2004 08:04:37 -0700, "A-B C."
<atakeoutcanton@adams-blaketakeout.com> wrote:

>This weekend I'm going to set up DSL with a modem and Linksys 4-port router...
>for my computer and my wife's Win98 box.
>
>Why do I have to enter in resolv.conf:
>
>nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xx
>nameserver yyy.yyy.yyy.yy
>
>Dial-up PPP (KPPP in KDE) seems to put entries in that file for me. Won't a
>router get this info for me and take care of DNS and NAT.

Sort of. I have a Linksys BEFSR41 (v2), and I place the Linksys' IP
address in resolv.conf. Actually, I list 3 IPs in resolv.conf:
My ISP's "Primary" DNS IP
My ISP's "Secondary" DNS IP
My Linksys IP

>
>Is NAT and DNS the same thing (roughly speaking?)

Not even close, really. Domain Name System converts names into IP
addresses. (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/DNS.html)

Experiment: Remove the DNS entries from resolv.conf (write them down
or make a copy of the file first!)
Now bring up your favorite browser and paste www.google.com into the
address bar. Does it take you to google?
Now paste http://216.239.39.147/ into the address bar. Does it take
you to google?


From http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/N/NAT.html:
"Short for Network Address Translation, an Internet standard that
enables a local-area network (LAN) to use one set of IP addresses for
internal traffic and a second set of addresses for external traffic. A
NAT box located where the LAN meets the Internet makes all necessary
IP address translations."

NAT allows you to have multiple computers masquerading behind 1 public
IP address. (short, very simplified explanation)

>
>On a Win98 box you I'm told to NOT enter any DNS IPs.

Hmm. I've always placed my ISP's DNS server entries in any Windoze
boxen I've had the misfortune to deal with.

You don't need to if using dial-up, as you connect to a server that
provides all of that information. Actually, same goes for cable/DSL
(typically). When you connect one of your computers to the cable/DSL
modem you would receive a DHCP-assigned IP address, DNS IPs, etc.

>
>Can anyone explain or point me to a reference on why Slack needs DNS IPs and
>Win does not.

Not the case, see above.
>
>Al


Scott McMillan

On Fri, 23 Apr 2004 12:39:15 -0400, Scott McMillan <smcm@usa.net>
wrote:

>On Fri, 23 Apr 2004 08:04:37 -0700, "A-B C."
><atakeoutcanton@adams-blaketakeout.com> wrote:
>
>>This weekend I'm going to set up DSL with a modem and Linksys 4-port router...
>>for my computer and my wife's Win98 box.
>>
>>Why do I have to enter in resolv.conf:
>>
>>nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xx
>>nameserver yyy.yyy.yyy.yy
>>
>>Dial-up PPP (KPPP in KDE) seems to put entries in that file for me. Won't a
>>router get this info for me and take care of DNS and NAT.
>
>Sort of. I have a Linksys BEFSR41 (v2), and I place the Linksys' IP
>address in resolv.conf. Actually, I list 3 IPs in resolv.conf:
>My ISP's "Primary" DNS IP
>My ISP's "Secondary" DNS IP
>My Linksys IP
>
>>
>>Is NAT and DNS the same thing (roughly speaking?)
>
>Not even close, really. Domain Name System converts names into IP
>addresses. (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/DNS.html)
>
>Experiment: Remove the DNS entries from resolv.conf (write them down
>or make a copy of the file first!)
>Now bring up your favorite browser and paste www.google.com into the
>address bar. Does it take you to google?
>Now paste http://216.239.39.147/ into the address bar. Does it take
>you to google?
>
>
>From http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/N/NAT.html:
>"Short for Network Address Translation, an Internet standard that
>enables a local-area network (LAN) to use one set of IP addresses for
>internal traffic and a second set of addresses for external traffic. A
>NAT box located where the LAN meets the Internet makes all necessary
>IP address translations."
>
>NAT allows you to have multiple computers masquerading behind 1 public
>IP address. (short, very simplified explanation)
>
>>
>>On a Win98 box you I'm told to NOT enter any DNS IPs.
>
>Hmm. I've always placed my ISP's DNS server entries in any Windoze
>boxen I've had the misfortune to deal with.
>
>You don't need to if using dial-up, as you connect to a server that
>provides all of that information. Actually, same goes for cable/DSL
>(typically). When you connect one of your computers to the cable/DSL
>modem you would receive a DHCP-assigned IP address, DNS IPs, etc.
>
>>
>>Can anyone explain or point me to a reference on why Slack needs DNS IPs and
>>Win does not.
>
>Not the case, see above.
>>
>>Al
>
>
>Scott McMillan

Ugh. I should have prefaced the above with "Assuming your Slack box
is set to a static IP and not getting its information from a DHCP
server..."


Scott McMillan

On Fri, 23 Apr 2004 08:04:37 -0700, A-B C. wrote:
> This weekend I'm going to set up DSL with a modem and Linksys 4-port router...
> for my computer and my wife's Win98 box.
>
> Why do I have to enter in resolv.conf:

You don't. Set your Slack box to be a DHCP client (use "netconfig", or
see / edit /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf. And yes, when you make any changes
to that file you can simply run "/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1" to apply them.)

> Dial-up PPP (KPPP in KDE) seems to put entries in that file for me. Won't a
> router get this info for me and take care of DNS and NAT.

Yes.

> Is NAT and DNS the same thing (roughly speaking?)

NAT = how your computer at 192.168.x.x is able to connect to anywhere
in the world, yet it will appear to them as coming from your external
IP.

DNS = how computers translate names into IP numbers and vice versa. A
directory system, so to speak.

> Can anyone explain or point me to a reference on why Slack needs
> DNS IPs and Win does not.

(None of this applies to YOU since you're using a router which will
handle the gory details. I do hope you understand that the router is
just a luxury, not a necessity, however. Everything it does, Slack can
do, as well or better.)

Hmmm, not knowing where you got this, it's hard to say what it meant.
If you were going to use your Slack box as the PPPoE client, directly
connecting to your ISP without the Linksys, there's a little-known PPP
option, usepeerdns, which gets the nameservers from the PPP peer. Some
people will tell you that pppd on Linux can't do that, but they don't
know what they are talking about.

"usepeerdns" puts a resolv.conf in /etc/ppp. You can use a symlink at
/etc/resolv.conf ("cd /etc ; rm resolv.conf ; ln -svi ppp/$_"), or have
the ip-up script copy it to /etc.

To those who don't want to use these routers at home, I suggest you get
the dnsmasq software which is now in -current. You name your local
machines in /etc/hosts, and dnsmasq will provide DNS resolution for
those names and IP addresses.
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