Let's suppose I connect my Ubuntu Hardy laptop to the wifi provided by a Linksys WRT54GL router. I get an IP address assigned by DHCP. I'd like to announce (via upnp?) a hostname for that IP address, so other computers on the same subnet can find my laptop using the hostname. How is this possible?
I'm interested only in DNS. WINS or NetBIOS doesn't work for me, because most of the machines on the subnet don't speak those protocols.
There is an option for sending your hostname with DHCP:
/etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf:
send host-name "myfunkycomputer";
As seen on: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=177832
Alternatively you can use NetBios: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=88206
The router does not act as a DNS server in the sense that it holds zone files and DNS records for your internal hosts. The fact that the router knows which hosts are connected to it via it's DHCP client table is not going to help your internal hosts resolve names for other internal hosts. You need an internal name resolution mechanism (DNS or WINS) that all of your internal hosts register with and query.
Zeroconf is what you're looking for. You may have to install software to get it working everywhere.
