I use to switch ISP often too, and I was aware of the DNS issue with wwwoffle about the possibility of generating some lock-pages (or lock-files?). Searching the internet I read something about the fact that this problem happens only (or especially) if wwwoffle is run in autodial mode. I never use this mode so I decided to try the "/etc/init.d/wwwoffle restart" into /etc/ppp/ip-up. It's working pretty good up to now so I was wondering whether it is really a bad thing or not. Can someone give me some deeper explanation about the lockfiles issue and the reason why it happens? Thank you all.
Paul A. Rombouts wrote:
Micha wrote:
i installed wwwoffle from Debian 3.01 (stable) on a Laptop with a ppp dialup connection. So far anything's alright, with one exception:
When going online, ppp (or only kppp ?) exchanges the etc/resolv.conf, and since i use to dial into different call-by-call providers, wwwoffle somehow gets troubled with the DNS, showing the 'name authorative host failure' message. It's a FAQ, i know; but then, my only idea still was to put an ' /etc/init.d/wwwoffle restart' into /etc/ppp/ip-up.
Exactly where i found the hint better _not_ to do this, for some problems with lockfiles.....
Now, what would be the best solution ?
There are two solutions mentioned in the WWWOFFLE FAQ that have worked satisfactorily for me.
The first solution, that I found to be by far the quickest and easiest (if you know how to compile and install from source code), is to insert a line into the wwwoffle code that calls res_init() every time wwwoffled goes online. Andrew Bischop objects to this in his FAQ, but it worked fine for me. If you're interested in this solution I can provide you with a patch.
The second solution involves pdnsd. This is more the satisfactory one in the long run, but I had to make some changes to the code of pdnsd before I could use it completely maintenance free. The main feature I found lacking in pdnsd was a mechanism for automatically updating DNS server addresses that are obtained through DHCP negotiation. There were some other problems that I've fixed as well. I've released the modifications I've made to the pdnsd code as a patch that can be downloaded from the page listed at the end of this message.
The main advantage to me of pdnsd is that I can use it as the DNS server for my entire home LAN (including machines running Windows). pdnsd runs on an old PC that I use as a gateway to the internet. I can now freely switch providers without having to reconfigure any machine on my LAN.
