Okay, you have to look at a file named something like hosts in the directory
etc.
/etc/hosts
See if it is there. That file then needs to define all of the other systems
along with names. So first, you need a "local only" IP address for your
network. This should be 192.168.x.y , where x can be any number from 1 to
255, and y should be the computer's individual ID number (1-255). So my
network's *MASK* is 255.255.255.0, and my network's address is 192.168.1.0
(the '0' computer address is a broadcast address for the network.) You then
need
to go around to each computer in the network, and set up a TCP/IP protocol,
and assign
an IP address with a different unique number 'X' for each. Usually, the
server will have
x=1, then other computers can have x=2, x=3, etc.
As you go, write down each computer in the list, and also assign each
computer
a name. Names should not be confusable with people's names, nor should they
be confusable with project names or even the actual computer's name (no
'IBM'
'DELL3', etc.) One good set of names is trees, for example.
"OAK","ELM","WILLOW",
etc. Or cars "TEMPO","CIVIC", "F100", etc. So you write all these down on
a sheet
of paper. You can add any other aliases you want, though.
Now edit at that "hosts" file, and add some entries to it. Each line should
contain
the IP address of the computer, it's name ('Elm'), and then any aliases you
want.
Now also come up with a name for your network (I have "netname" below, but
it
could be "trees" instead. I'm not sure, but it could need to be the name of
the workgroup.)
127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.1.1 elm.netname aliaselm
192.168.1.2 oak.netname aliasoak1 aliasoak2
192.168.1.3 birch.netname aliasbirch
and so on.
Once you have this set up, now you can go ahead and "ping oak.netname" and
it should work.
