-=> Quoting Mark Lewis to Jeff Bowman on 02-26-08  19:32 <=-
 ML> "Jeff Bowman -> Nancy Backus"  wrote in

Jeff and Mark...  Here's the Wizard...  :)
 
 >> # WATTCP.CFG for Ethernet/Fixed IP - according to my router manual
 >> MY_IP = 192.168.100.10    #an IP not used by the router
 >> NETMASK = 255.255.255.0   #the mask my router expects
 >> GATEWAY = 192.168.100.0   #the address of my router
 >> NAMESERVER = 
 >> 
 
 JB> Just a quick addition to this, or a tip if you prefer!  I've found that
 JB> many (if not all) routers these days have DNS built into them.  That
 JB> means the nameserver can usually just be 192.168.100.1 or whatever the
 JB> router IP happens to be. This makes it pretty easy to configure manual
 JB> IPs in a network without trying to remember an ISP DNS server.  Or
 JB> better yet, it prevents you from having to update every machine's
 JB> configuration if the ISP's DNS address ever changed.
 JB> If anyone knows of any particular brand/model of routers which don't
 JB> offer such internal DNS capability, I'd be curious to know of them.

If by "DNS" you really mean "DHCP" - no arguments.
However, DNS stands
for Dynamic Name Server. I don't know of any home or business routers
that have that. The businesses I'm familiar with use a separate DNS
server. For DNS to work at all, you (or some system administrator)
have to enter a lookup table of host_names to IP_addresses. DNS allows
you to refer to machines by a name instead of IP_address.

The example WATTCP file is for a NON-DHCP system. It also assumes that you
do not have your own DNS, or have not done the setup and configuration
of a DNS server. It assumes you wish to continue to use the one your ISP
provides.

DHCP allows you to get the basic network information (MyIP, NetMask,
GateWayIP, NameServerIP) that you must have - from a central source.

 ML> i don't know of any... this falls right in with the addition of NAT
 ML> and other services in SOHO/HOME units... in most all cases, DNS
 ML> services are provided by dnsmasq so as to let it cache DNS lookups and
 ML> reduce the amount of DNS traffic that local workstations make to the
 ML> outside DNS services... 

-= Glossary =-
NAT: Network Address Translation = gateway (a router function)
dnsmasq: the process running on the server that does DNS
SOHO: Small (business) Office, Home Office

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