Networking – How to Access Machines on the Home Network with Their Machine Name

avahinetworking

I have all machines connecting to the internet through a wireless router (occasionally I plug a machine into the router via cable). I have installed the ssh package and can access one Ubuntu machine from another using, for example, "ssh 10.0.0.2". However, the local IP addresses change as machines are switched off and on and reconnect to the router, so I'd prefer to use "ssh machinename".

If I do type "ssh machinename", nothing happens, no error, no returning to the prompt.

What do I need to install/configure to access Ubuntu machines via their machine name?

(As a side note, I have Samba installed so I can access Windows machines on the same network. I have set name resolve order = lmhosts wins bcast host because I use OpenDNS, I'm not sure if this could affect Ubuntu networking. Name-based resolution works in both directions between Windows and Ubuntu (for example, connecting to an Ubuntu machine with WinSCP).)

Best Answer

First, make sure you have the Avahi daemon installed. (Should be installed by default on Ubuntu Desktop, but not on Server.)

sudo apt-get install avahi-daemon

Then to access them, add ".local" to the end of the name, for example

ssh machinename.local

I'm not sure if it's possible to remove the need to add .local

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I would create a Shared folder on one of the desktops (the one with the most free hard drive space). Then you can access that Shared folder from other computers. To Share a folder right click on the folder and choose Sharing or if you don't see that choose properties and then choose sharing. If you don't have Samba installed, you should be asked to install Samba. You can allow access to specific users or you can make the folder available to anyone on the network (probably easiest on a small home network).

Then from the other computers navigate to the Network (on the list of Places) and find the computer with the Shared folder. Open the folder and then make a bookmark. Anything you place in that folder from one computer will be accessible from all the other computers.

Sorry I can't give you exact step by steps as I don't have a 10.10 machine in front of me.

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It's my understanding that /etc/resolv.conf is for public nameservers only. It appears that yours has been modified to use a private nameserver ostensibly over a VPN. If you wish your Ubuntu box to obtain Domain Name Service normally to allow internet access, I suggest that you revert back to the default /etc/resolv.conf file which contains:

# Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by resolvconf(8)
#     DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
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You can revert back to the default /etc/resolv.conf file by either restoring the original from a recent backup from before it was modified, or opening the file the link points to with the command sudo gedit /etc/resolv.conf and pasting the code from the default file above into it overwriting it's current content. You may want to save a copy of the current content beforehand as a backup somewhere you will be able to locate it if you find you need it.

NOTE: /etc/resolv.conf is a symbolic link to the file /run/resolvconf/resolv.conf so file based operations such as editing on /etc/resolv.conf will actually be carried out on /run/resolvconf/resolv.conf

To confirm that the link hasn't been erroneously modified run the command ls -l /etc/resolv.conf which should result in the output below.

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 Feb 25 2016 /etc/resolv.conf -> ../run/resolvconf/resolv.conf

the arrow indicates it's a symlink.

For more information on resolvconf which modifies this file see the man page.

Best Answer

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