[thelist] Mac Host file & domain recognition

[Boris Mann]

What do you mean by "development domain"? Do you mean a bogus DNS
domain, like "company.local"?

There are a couple of things you can do, if that is indeed the case. You
can add the DNS server that is responsible for "company.local" to the
Macs list of DNS servers (System Preferences --> Network --> TCP). If
you are using DHCP, the list of DNS servers will likely be blank.

The other thing you can do is add an entry in NetInfo Manager for the
server. Launch NetInfo (Applications --> Utilities --> NetInfo Manager).
You'll need to do the "Click lock to make changes" dance at the bottom,
then select the "machines" directory. By default, you'll have
"broadcasthost" and "localhost" listed there. Select the "localhost"
entry, then select Edit-->Duplicate. Change the name to
"name_of_server". This can be a full, fake DNS name (e.g.
"myserver.company.local"), or just a fragment, like "myserver".

Once you've entered everything, click off that entry, confirm that you
really, really want to change things. Now, you should be able to type it
into your browser and it will appear (and use the name in place of the
IP address anywhere).

<tip author="Boris Mann" type="OS X Tips">

The NetInfo database stores lots of stuff that people from other *NIX
backgrounds expect to find in system text files. The HOSTS file,
passwords, and users are probably the most obvious. The NetInfo Manager
is actually fairly easy to use, once you start experimenting with it.

</tip>

On Friday, July 26, 2002, at 03:07 PM, Vince Heilman wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> It's been ages since I've been on thelist here, but I'm pretty sure that
> somebody here can help.
>
>
> I'm currently running an all WIN development domain with one MAC on it.
> In order for my MAC (OSX) to see anything on the domain, I have to
> enter the
> IP address of the server in the URL. Is there anything I could do to
> allow
> the MAC to resolve
> the name of the domain to the ip address? I know this is typically
> what a
> HOST file does,
> however I've tried that and I can't seem to get the MAC to recognize
> it. Any
> help would be grealty appreciated.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Vince