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I just got a SheevaPlug and installed subversion on it.
It gets its IP address using DHCP so it can change from time to time.
I would like to be able to connect (from Windows XP and Windows 7 machines) to it using its host name as opposed to by IP address. Is that possible to give it a name like "sheeva" and then just connect using that name?

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5 Answers 5

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Have the DHCP server register the name the SheevaPlug presents in its DHCP request with the IP address it assigns. If you disclose what DHCP and DNS server you're running, someone can give you instructions on how to do that. I run dnsmasq, which is a DNS and DHCP server all in one, and it does this for me automagically.

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  • The SheevaPlug is running the default install of Debian. I don't even know if it's running a dhcp or dns server.
    – KPexEA
    Nov 27, 2009 at 4:23
  • If it's getting a DHCP response, it's not running a DHCP server.
    – womble ♦
    Nov 27, 2009 at 5:21
  • Sheeva's run Ubuntu by default, not Debian.
    – wzzrd
    Nov 27, 2009 at 13:00
  • Yeah, that's the problem with the OPs comment...
    – womble ♦
    Nov 27, 2009 at 18:41
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On a small home network I'd just setup multicast DNS. On linux, this usually means installing avahi, on Windows it'll be Apple Bonjour and on Mac OS X, well its built in. Once you've got it up and running, you should just see the hosts as whatever-hostname.local.

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  • I'd second this. I use bonjour at home myself. It's fantastic for a small business (simple network that isn't subnetted) or a home network, and requires very little administration (another plus for home use, I don't want to feel like I'm back at work when all I'm trying to do is connect my media centre to my film NAS so I can watch a movie!).
    – Rob Moir
    Nov 27, 2009 at 8:03
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womble's answer would be fine, if you configured dhclient to register the domain name (and your dns server allows dynamic DNS updates).

Another easy way would be to register the MAC address for the sheevaplug in the DHCP server so that the address, while being assigned by DHCP, is always the same. You would do this on the router, or whatever is acting as a DHCP server on your network.

Once you do that, register the IP in DNS and go to town.

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    Did you mean setup a reservation in the DHCP server? What DNS server software are you running that allows setting up reservations?
    – Zoredache
    Nov 27, 2009 at 6:20
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Maybe you can install Samba on the SheevaPlug and make it announce its hostname over NetBios? The Windows machines should be able to address it then..

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  • The part of Samba you need for this is called nmbd: samba.org/samba/docs/man/manpages-3/nmbd.8.html
    – GregC
    Nov 27, 2009 at 6:52
  • Just wondering, why the vote down? I'm new here, but the FAQ instructs to vote down if the info is wrong. I'm sure there are other ways to do this, but if the OP doesn't have admin access to DHCP, it's actually a good solution, I use it myself at work.
    – GregC
    Nov 27, 2009 at 20:51
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1) If you are not trivial with DNS settings you can try somthing like dyndns.com, but this is very bad solution.
2) Its better to prepare special autorun script that calls nsupdate with proper parameters. It acts according to DNS RFC, so ideally all servers should support this feature. But anyway you need to find out which DNS software uses your server.

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