How is one supposed to use a LAN with a mixed collection of 'things'
on it such that you can actually connect to them without simply
guessing their addresses?
I have just arrived on our boat in France where we have a TP-link
WA5210 WiFi box connection to the local WiFi hotspot, on the 'local'
side it uses 192.168.13.x. Then there's a standard domestic WiFi
router whose WAN is 192.168.13.x hard-wired to the WA5210 that
provides WiFi and wire ethernet within the boat.
On the boat there's the following:-
My Acer Aspire netbook
Seimens C475IP 'gigiaset' VOIP phones
A Beaglebone Black computer nmiontoring various things
An Android tablet (or two)
Sometimes an HP printer
So it all works from the 'client' point of view in that I can use the
iternet from my netbook, the phones work, my wife can read and send
E-Mail from her tablet, etc.
However it's a total disaster if I want to connect from one system to
another. How am I suppsed to find the address of, for example, the
Beaglebone Black? Why do routers seem to have forgotten the ability
to register names when DHCP clients come along? OK, with just four or
five systems I can just try them all but it's a bit crude and painful.
Once you get to ten or more it's hopeless.
It's why I run dnsmasq on a server on my LAN at home, all my systems
(well, nearly all, one insists on being anonymous) have 'names', what
an amazing concept!
--
Chris Green
