Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 11:27:42 -0600 From: jacks@sage-american.com To: "Joe & Fhe Barbish" <barbish@a1poweruser.com>, "Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@freebie.atkielski.com> Cc: "FBSD Questions" <questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: /etc/hosts file ? FBSD doc suck Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.20011212112742.03dc67c8@mail.sage-american.com> In-Reply-To: <LPBBIGIAAKKEOEJOLEGOKEEMCJAA.barbish@a1poweruser.com> References: <012e01c18278$cef45510$0a00000a@atkielski.com>
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Joe: You show this in hosts I believe: 10.0.0.10 gateway.companyname.com gateway 10.0.0.11 winbox1.companyname.com winbox1 Actually, it should be: 10.0.0.10 gateway gateway.companyname.com 10.0.0.11 winbox1 winbox1.companyname.com ...that is, if the instructions are followed... guess both ways work for you. At 12:16 PM 12.12.2001 -0500, Joe & Fhe Barbish wrote: >Anthony > > I want to thank you for your professional response to my question > on this list. You were concise and to the point. To bad the other > repliers who monitor this mailing list don't understand and/or > comprehend the valuable service this mailing list plays in the > acceptance of FBSD by mainstream users. I see posts that are obvious > even to me that they have not researched their problem or not given > enough info. But to respond to a question that is obviously will > thought out with a stupid statement of 'read the man page' just shows > the responder knows less that the questioner. As you know my question > took a turn for the worst when people started jumping on other > responder who just don't know how to use the English language to > comprehend the meaning of the questions subject or how to have a > professional manner in the correspondences they show to the world. > I am not offended by people who show there fools and demonstrate > they lack knowledge of the subject by what they write. That's what > the delete key is for. My view point is if I can not add some new > info to the question I just don't reply. Many other readers of this > list should do the same thing. > > The type of information you provided is what is missing in the FBSD > handbook. In the technical documentation writers world it's called > descriptive supporting background information. The handbook and man > pages are written in a reference style which is targeted at an > audience who all ready has an in-depth understanding of how things > work. Some of the man pages you all most have to have the authors > level of knowledge to understand what it means. > > I have 25 years installing operating systems on large IBM mainframe > machines. I have read more technical manuals they I care to remember. > I have seen manuals that are easy to comprehend and some that are so > bad they should have never been printed. I think I have the > background to judge how well a technical manual supports a software > product. So I make this statement as constructive criticism. FBSD > will never penetrate the main line pc operating system market or > ever make a dent in Microsoft's market share until the handbook, > man pages and install procedure become user friendly, up to date > and current with the version of the software in current distribution. > These are all lacking in the newly published second edition of the > FBSD handbook. I hope Wind River the new FBSD supporter will also > see this and invest in a technical writer to redo the documentation. > The software product may be the best in it's niche but with out good > Documentation it will just not become popular. > Is becoming popular not what we FBSD users want to see? > > Now a comment about what I have comprehended from your answer. It > looks to me as the host name function in the hosts file is an > undocumented standard naming convention. The domain name represents > the handle name you want to know your whole environment by. The > prefix.domain is the name you use to identify each unique machine on > the LAN. The alias name is just a short cut name. The names are easier > to remember that the IP address. Entries of this type are not > necessary but are generally used as a convenance. > So if I have these statements >10.0.0.10 gateway.companyname.com gateway >10.0.0.11 winbox1.companyname.com winbox1 > > I could ping 10.0.0.10 or ping gateway.companyname.com or ping gateway > and all the pings would be basically the same. > >Thanks again for a job well done >Joe > >-----Original Message----- >From: Anthony Atkielski [mailto:anthony@freebie.atkielski.com] >Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2001 2:20 PM >To: Joe & Fhe Barbish >Cc: FreeBSD Questions >Subject: Re: /etc/hosts file ? > >Joe writes: > >> I think the ::1 and 127.0.0.1 work together >> and have to do with loopback function ... > >The first is for IPv6, which you probably aren't using. The second is for >standard IPv4 IP addressing. As you correctly surmise, they are for the >loopback (localhost) address. > >> ... but I have no idea what the 'localhost >> localhost.my.domain myname.my.domain' is >> saying to FBSD and or if am I suppose to change it. > >These are the names equated with the local machine. You should leave the >"localhost" text alone, but change the rest to reflect the domain in which >your machine resides. Since you are on a small LAN with just your two >machines, however, you can just put "localhost" on this line. > >> Now the handbook says to add entries for any >> local hosts, but gives no explanation of what >> a local host is. > >In your configuration, a local host is the FreeBSD machine itself, plus >other machines on the same LAN, which means your Win98 box. So only these >two machines are local hosts. > >> Is local host any private box attached to >> this FBSD box or just FBSD boxes with server >> functions? > >Local hosts are any machines on your LAN that you wish to be able to address >by name. So if you call your Win98 box "winbox" and you've given it an >address of 10.0.0.2, you'd need a line like this in /etc/hosts to address it >by name: > >10.0.0.2 winbox > >> So do I need a statement in hosts for 10.0.0.1? > >It doesn't hurt, but it is not essential, unless you wish to reference that >address by name. > >The /etc/hosts file is just a list of names to be associated with IP >addresses. The resolver functions search this file looking for a name you >give when you reference a computer by its hostname (either the name itself >or the fully-qualified domain name, such as winbox.joesdomain.com, or >whatever). > >> Does official hostname mean a domain name >> registered with the internet people, or is >> it any name I want to use as a handle to >> reference this FBSD box? > >You can use any name you want. The /etc/hosts file is used only by the >FreeBSD box itself, so you have complete freedom to put in the names you >want. If the computers referenced also have "official" names known to the >outside world, of course, you might wish to make sure that your hosts file >matches those, but it isn't required. The hosts file will take precedence. > >> Does it have to have end with a .com? > >No, it can be whatever you want. > > > >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > > Best regards, Jack L. Stone, Server Admin Sage-American http://www.sage-american.com jacks@sage-american.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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