In on Tue, 19 Jun 2007
12:43:36 +0200, in uk.comp.home-networking, 'Flemming L. Baerentsen'
wrote:

Hi James,

Thank you for your respond.

I have also considered adding both DNS and DHCP server in Blackbox. But then
again, what if the network consist of an existing DNS and DHCP server. Then
it again will be back to square one.


Assuming 'Blackbox' has a static IP.

Would it not be simpler to create an 'installation' bat file for them to
run on each machine? The file (called anything.bat) has to contain

echo 192.168.1.10 blackbox %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

and it will add the required entry automagically when executed. Obviously,
replace 192.168.1.10 with the actual IP of blackbox.

I can't remember if the initial hosts file under windows finishes with a
carriage return, so it's possible you'd get a glitch doing the above in
that the entry would be tacked onto the last line in the blank (comments
only) file. Try it and see. If it is a problem then the cure is to use

echo # %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts | echo 192.168.1.10 blackbox
%windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

as the batch file line instead. Without newlines, ie all entered on one
line. It may be better to do it that way anyhow as it's then guaranteed to
work regardless of any changes that have already been made.

To anyone observant, 'doze ignores the comment character (#) if it occurs
at the end of a hostname in the hosts file.

Oh, and if you'd rather let the users copy and paste something then the
above line prefixed with 'cmd /c ' will work equally well if entered into
the 'run' box from the start menu.

Dave J.

"Dave J." skrev i en meddelelse
...
In on Tue, 19 Jun 2007
12:43:36 +0200, in uk.comp.home-networking, 'Flemming L. Baerentsen'
wrote:

Hi James,

Thank you for your respond.

I have also considered adding both DNS and DHCP server in Blackbox. But
then
again, what if the network consist of an existing DNS and DHCP server.
Then
it again will be back to square one.


Assuming 'Blackbox' has a static IP.

Would it not be simpler to create an 'installation' bat file for them to
run on each machine? The file (called anything.bat) has to contain

echo 192.168.1.10 blackbox %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

and it will add the required entry automagically when executed. Obviously,
replace 192.168.1.10 with the actual IP of blackbox.

Hi Dave,

Problem here is that the IP is unknown for the PC user as the Blackbox does
not have static IP. We do not know which IP-scheme the customer is using at
his/her network.

Regards
Flemming