you would need a dns address if you wanted to access any other machine by name as opposed to ip address. if you are happy accessing via ip address it is not needed.
do bear in mind some protocols do a dns lookup to see if the connecting machine is who it says it is (a reverse dns lookup) and if there is no dns available this can produce a long timeout delay. do you have a firewall on? what does traceroute tell you? are all machines on the same subnet (ie 192.168.n.x where n is a constant throughout your network and x varies per machine between 1 and 254. what does the routing table say? route -n is the command you want. (all this is why dhcp is often a useful protocol!) On Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 9:47 AM, chris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > A further question please. > s there is no server involved, why would I need a DNS address, and where > would I get one? > Regards Chris T > On Sun, 2008-11-23 at 09:06 +1300, Nick Rout wrote: >> no difference between a router and a switch from this point of view. >> >> left click the network manager icon on the top panel >> >> click "manual configuration" >> >> "unlock" and fill in credentials >> >> click on the connection you want to fiddle with, click properties and >> unclick "roaming mode" >> >> fill in the gaps. >> >> you'll also need to provide dns addresses in the obvious places >> >> >> On Sat, Nov 22, 2008 at 6:54 PM, chris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> > Can anyone direct me to some information that can help me set up a LAN, >> > using static ip numbers with a switch, not a router? >> > >> > there is a heap of information using DHCP, and using routers, but I have >> > not been able to find anything using static numbers and a switch. >> > >> > this particular distro does not seem to like static ip numbers >> > Regards Chris T >> > >> > > >
