Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 22:54 Post subject: WRT54GL local DNS problem
I've set up the latest dd-wrt with my router. I have three laptops that use it via wireless. They all get their IPs from the router's DHCP, they can access the Internet, but they can't see each other in My Network Places.
I've enabled DNSmasq everywhere I could find. I also put the wireless on the same VLAN as the ethernet ports (Does that do any good, is that ok? I don't understand the bridge part.). I've turned off AP isolation.
The PCs can connect to each other if I enter the IP address, for example, \\192.168.1.131, in the address bar, but not when I enter the computer name. Each PC can also see their own shared folders in My Network Places. So everything should be set up correctly, but the router does not resolve the IP addresses to computer names.
Joined: 01 Feb 2008 Posts: 151 Location: Lufkin, Texas, USA
Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 0:53 Post subject:
Does this only happen on one computer? Or have you tried to "find" another computer from every computer on your network.
The router shouldn't have anything to do with it, as you could connect computers via a switch only and they should still find each other.
You may have a corrupt LMHosts file on one or all of your computers, as that is what Windows uses to resolve the local NetBIOS names. If you have a main desktop that you use, I would start there.
Yes, this problem is on all the PCs. Ip addresses work, but not Netbios names. I'll check out the guide.
Edit:
The Lmhosts file was empty.
I also noticed that the router shows up in My Network Places because I have enabled Upnp, but I can't see its properties, because it says the device is not available.
Before I bought the router I had the PCs conected wirelessly ad-hoc. They could see each other and share files.
Yes, they are in the same workgroup.
What's strange is that I can access the shared files if I enter the other PCs IP address, but not the name. Can Dnsmasq screw that up? What happens if I disable it? Will Netbios take over?
Why is the used domain "WAN", instead of "LAN&WLAN"?
After some tweaking I can now see other PCs in Network Places on all the PCs. However, one of them still can't upen the router's upnp properties page, while the others can. There's still something wrong.
Joined: 01 Feb 2008 Posts: 151 Location: Lufkin, Texas, USA
Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 3:02 Post subject:
crush wrote:
What happens if I disable it? Will Netbios take over?
NetBIOS should take over anyway. I have DNSMasq enabled on mine, but I use it to route traffic that's meant to go to the office to the office. I can resolve all names on my local network here at the house just fine. I don't believe I've ever seen a network where you CAN'T resolve the local workgroup computer names.
But, I'm not familiar enough with the DD-WRT firmware to know if there would be a setting in there that could block that from happening. It shouldn't...it's just a fancy switch. Unless you have a DNS server like on a client/server network, hostnames should sort themselves out between the computers on the network with no intervention. Although, sometimes, I have seen machines with older OS's (Win98 especially) take over and try to be the "master browser" and it jacks up the whole thing.
When I worked for Wendy's, I had a network comprised of XP computers and Win2003 servers and ONE Win98 box that I kept around only because of the data that was on it. It's a long story... Anyway, I was having problems resolving names on the network, and come to find out, the Win98 box was interfering and trying to be the master browser. Disabled that feature in the registry and all was good.
What happens if you disable both DNSMasq and Local DNS and just leave that text box blank?
Joined: 01 Feb 2008 Posts: 151 Location: Lufkin, Texas, USA
Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 8:08 Post subject:
it's a DNS forwarder...meaning, you have to tell it where to forward the dns requests. If you enable it and then don't tell it where to forward the requests to, it won't do you a bit of good. At least, that is my understanding.
As mentioned, you shouldn't need local DNS for workgroup operation. NetBIOS takes care of computer names.
I am able to access the workgroup from wireless clients just fine in Eko's RC6 build 8790 nokaid. I think you may have a firmware bug, or you have a broken configuration.
Joined: 01 Feb 2008 Posts: 151 Location: Lufkin, Texas, USA
Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 14:56 Post subject:
If you're just a local network of 3 laptops sharing files and internet access, you shouldn't need DNS forwarding. Your computers will sort out the NetBIOS names themselves.
If you had a VPN connection to your office, you may want to set up DNSMasq to forward DNS requests meant for your office to go there.
You could also forward DNS requests to your ISP's DNS server, but when your router logs into the ISP either via PPPoE or DHCP, the router takes care of that anyway.
Otherwise, yeah, you're good ... you don't need to do any DNS
