[vox-tech] home network - how to make a UNIX known to the other PC (Windows)

[Charles McLaughlin]

David Rosenstrauch wrote:
> Hai Yi wrote:
>> This might be a very simple question, so forgive me if it is.
>>
>> I have two PCs at home. One is Ubuntu the other is Windows XP.
>>
>> Ubuntu machine has a name "zodiac", how can it makes it known to the
>> Window XP machine? I want to install a tightvnc server on Ubuntu and a
>> client on Windows so it can visit the Ubuntu.
>>
>> I  guess I need to modify the hosts and network files on Win XP to
>> include the IP and name of the Ubuntu machine?
>>
>> Thanks for your help!
>>
>> Hai
> 
> Basically the problem is that you have no DNS server on your local 
> network, so the boxes don't know each others names.
> 
> So you can choose either a) the hard-coded solution (i.e., modify the 
> hosts files) or b) the dynamic solution (i.e., run a dns server on your 
> network).
> 
> I do the latter.  But FYI - there's no need to run a full-fledged (and 
> complex) BIND server.  There's a small DNS server that's perfect for 
> small home LAN's, called dnsmasq.  It's a combination DNS and DHCP 
> server.  So I've configured the linux server on my LAN to run dnsmasq 
> (and thus serve as the DHCP server dishing out IP addresses) and to tell 
> each box to use dnsmasq as its DNS server.  And voila - all the boxes 
> can now access each other by name.
> 
> So if you feel like working a bit more for the "right" solution, try 
> giving dnsmasq a shot.

While technically accurate, this advice is overkill.  Nick's note about 
Samba is much, much easier.  Just do 'apt-get install samba' and you're 
pretty much done.  If you're prompted to specify a workgroup, you'll 
probably want to say 'mshome'.

Charles