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Chapter 7 TCP/IP NIC Configuration
Creating Aliases
All TCP/IP systems are designed to make multiple operations easy by using
an alias, which is a logical name to IP/MAC address association. This step is
important in the Unix world if DNS (Domain Name Services) is being used; it
can also simplify the other environments.
Locate the
hosts
file. (If you are using Windows 95/98 and have never had a
hosts
file, you can create one by using Notepad or any other text editor and
saving it to the Windows directory.) Edit the file to add your new P5000LJ
Printer, and save the file. Rebooting is not necessary.
Location of
hosts
file:
Windows 95/98 windows
NT windows/system32/drivers/etc
Unix /etc
HP e3000 host.net.sys
Example of entries in a
hosts
file:
10.200.30.123 printer1
10.200.30.130 accounting
192.168.2.33 next_state
10.200.30.18 MIS
In most Unix systems using DNS, a
hosts
table is constructed as shown
above. The file
nsswitch.conf
or its equivalent is then edited to associate a
MAC (hardware address) to an IP address in the
hosts
file. In doing this, any
individual client workstation needs only a single address entry—specifically,
the DNS host address—as a
ping
to printer1 is actually resolved by the DNS
machine and returned to the client workstation. This means an administrator
need maintain only one
hosts
file for all to use, making updating central.
For peer to peer and small networks, using a local
hosts
table on each
workstation can function in place of DNS.
Note Make the names easy to remember but descriptively useful.