Machine names on a private network

[i]

I have - or will soon have - about 6 different computers on my home network. (Why? For heating, of course.) They run a variety of OSes.

How can I set things up so that, for example, when I want to connect to another system on the network I don't need to use that system's 192.168.x.x IP address? In other words, how do I set up a DNS service on my private network that won't interfere - or interact - with the DNS provided by my ISP? Or is it the case that, once you start doing DNS locally, you have to go whole-hog and forget about DNS provided by anyone else? How the heck does that work?

It's not just for real-time connections - I'd really also like to set up a better mailing environment too. Right now, I have a couple of systems that are running daily scripts. They generate e-mail as their output. It'd be nice if I could grab e-mail from blah1.example.net and blah2.example.net rather than 192.168.57.1 and 192.168.57.2.

Is any of this even possible without a major headache? I have a domain name available already. But seeing as how it currently resolves to a virtual host run by my hosting service, something tells me I could be in a world of pain if I just adopted my domain name for use on my home network. It'd be great if I could set things up so that anyone, anywhere who tries to connect to ftp.example.net skipped the web-server my host provides, and wound connecting to the FTP server in my closet. Does anyone know if something like this is feasible at all?

 

[Mercutio]

Goodness yes. Now, which OS do you want to be your DNS serving machine to run?

 

[i]

OpenBSD, of course!

I've been reading this How-To, sub-titled, "HOWTO become a totally small time DNS admin." There is some really helpful information in there, but I'm still looking for suggestions, especially with respect to incorporating a domain name I already have...

 

[Mercutio]

So you want someone to actually route memyselfandi.com or whatever? That's a tougher sell. You probably want to visit dyndns.org to read about their services in relation to your needs.

 

[ddrueding]

Do you want blah1.memyselfandi.com and blah2.memyselfandi.com to both be accessed from the internet? Or just from within the network?

 

[i]

So you want someone to actually route memyselfandi.com or whatever? That's a tougher sell. You probably want to visit dyndns.org to read about their services in relation to your needs.

Do you want blah1.memyselfandi.com and blah2.memyselfandi.com to both be accessed from the internet? Or just from within the network?

Well, it's sounding like having blahx.example.net, etc. accessible from the Internet involves two of: pain, cash, sacrificed goats. I'd settle for just within the home network. I presume that How-To explains it, right? The part about creating a fake internal naming scheme (linux.bogus) was clear, and the part about creating a caching name server was clear (and kind of an attractive idea), but it wasn't clear you can do both simultaneously. I presume so, right?

I'm soooo tempted to sign up for AT&T's "Managed Internet Service". For $268.50 a month, I could have a real IP address, no stupid restrictions on what I can run off it, but only 128Kbps transfer rate. Then again, that's a guaranteed rate. Either direction. All the time, 24/7. Do you think I could live with that? I have no idea what my current speed is as I'm using some weird-in building shared network.

 

[ddrueding]

Wow, let me reply in reverse order...

$268.50 is a whole frickin lot of money for that service. I currently have 5 real IP addresses and 1500/256 for $120/mo.

This is really the way to do it, as every machine I have has it's own "live" address. No "fake" DNS, and all your machines directly accesible. Just be sure you have a good firewall and good security.

 

[ddrueding]

Sorry, just looked up the numbers and they were a bit off...

ADSL 1500k-3000k/384k-608k w/ 6 static IPs - $80/mo.

 

[i]

Wow. Who provides that service? Do they put any limitations on what you can do with the systems assigned to those addresses?

 

[ddrueding]

nope, I have an exchange server, a terminal server, and several web servers.

The provider is Redshift

 

[i]

What rock have I been living under? Is it just me, or is that a truly amazing deal? Why the heck isn't everyone in your area using a service like that?

Too bad they're on the wrong side of the continent.

 

[ddrueding]

I currently have about 30 accounts with them (business). I even have my own account rep. They are also offering wireless services for ~$50/mo if you are out of range of DSL.

 

[timwhit]

128kbps is not very fast. 15KB/s, my cable modem provides 2Mbps, which is about equal to 250KB/s. 128kbps is what dual ISDN is, I had that about 7-8 years ago and it sucks compared with any broadband type service.

 

[blakerwry]

i think dns2go charges $10/year for DNS... they may have upped their rates.. at one time it was free. Your ISP will almost always cut you a deal on more IPs if you need em. I prefer to go the firewall/gateway route myself (if possible).

For instance, I called up road runner and they gladly added a second IP onto my account. Road runner makes you go business class if you want static IPs though... however the normal DHCP service has pretty consistant IPs (mine may have changed once in the last 5 months).

The service here offers a very consistant 3Mbit/384kbit speed.

 

[Howell]

i, as far as building wat you need from scratch I cant' help. However, for my smoothwall all I needed to do was add the dns name and internal IP address to the host file and restart the service.

Smoothwall will always use the hard coded address before searching. BSD is bound to be similar.

And so I can hit www.whstrain.us whether I'm inside or outside the firewall.