[uunix]

Having a good internal network setup really helps you share files etc and carry out all sorts of tasks. You enjoy the ability to remote administer machines and even run them headless.

Learn the basics, and it will save you time installing and re-installing.

At some point, I agree that it will be very useful for me to setup and manage a network connecting all of my machines.

Besides the internet connections for the Tezro, Mac and now the V880z, the only "network" that I do currently have a NFS setup between my Tezro and my Mac, allowing file sharing between the two machines.

I found this now, it would have been useful to know this before I reinstalled Solaris:

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19455-01/806...index.html

Just some advice.

You should only resort to DHCP in a network if the DHCP server notifies the DNS server of any changes of address or if you have host files set up on each client and each client has a DHCP reservation (meaning it never changes - this negates the need to change the host files on UNIX machines).

As an example, the nfs setup you have relies on IP addresses? Unless you have a host entry. This host entry will fail if the DHCP releases a different address to the NFS host. Again though it will still fail if the DHCP gives the nfs host a different address and the nfs client is set to mount an IP address. With me? the nfs server (corner shop) moves house and the nfs client (person) cannot go get it's groceries ! The Shop has moved. 

A lot of routers will fail on this, not all but most I would say. 

So in my setup, I do not use DHCP for anything other than Windows, Linux and Apple machines. The DHCP Server and the DNS server is the same (but can be different). Once a DHCP address is released it notifies the DNS service, which then updates it records. So any client of the DNS knows where to go. The DNS server also has forwarders, meaning if it doesn't know the answer it then asks the routers (the only reason it doesn't know is because it outside the network aka bbc.co.uk). If the routers doesn't know, it then asks whatever DNS it has been supplied with and so forth.

IRIX though is fine with certain things, but the naming concept is like many UNIX systems and fails. My DHCP also supplies many others things which do not concern the UNIX machines. Hence UNIX machines are static.

So I have a DHCP range for some machines, and others have static addresses and each of the static machines have their own identical hosts file.

Now this is not the best setup, we have many things including NIS, which is similar but different. So I will one day get round to something a bit better, but for 6 or 7 machines I'm ok with hosts and remembering myself what each address is.

That's it simply. There is more, but I need a new Gin & Tonic.