[comp.protocols.tcp-ip] How to configure the network files in the right way ?

dirk@dksoft.incom.de (Dirk Koeppen) (10/21/90)

When I look at other TCP/IP boxes I mostly find strange configured
networks. Some loopback networks do not use the 127.0.0.1 address and
so on. 

Therefore I would like to put the following statements into discussion.
I am very interested if the way I configured my network is the right way to do.

The machine I configure is called dksoft (192.1.1.99) the network is
called incom (my full address is dksoft@incom.de).

First the /etc/hosts file:
127.0.0.1	loopback loop
192.1.1.99	dksoft dksoft.incom.de localhost local
192.1.1.100	nix nix.incom.de

Note that I put the localhost entry behind the name of the local host. Most
hosts have the localhost entry behind the kernel loopback entry. Also an
entry loopback names the kernel loopback address. Some systems I have seen
(especially SCO-UNIX) return a NULL-pointer on the gethostbyname() call
if the domain address is not set in the same line where the hostname appears.
Therefore I also addred the *.incom.de entry.

The /etc/networks file then looks like:
loopback	127		loopback-net software-loopback-net
incom		192.1.1		local-net

Another important point is how to load the network devices. The Ethernet
device I use is wd0, the kernel-loopback is lo0. I found that most
standard installations load the lo0 device with localhost. This would
set the Internet-address to the lo0 device.

I therefore changed my /etc/netd.cf file to the following:
ifconfig "wd0" dksoft up
ifconfig "lo0" loopback up

If I now use netstat -i everything seem all right:

Name  Mtu   Network     Address      Ipkts   Ierrs Opkts   Oerrs Collis
wd0   1500  incom       dksoft.incom 2790    0     9522    2     0     
lo0   2048  loopback    loopback     14418   0     14418   0     0     

or netstat -in:

Name  Mtu   Network     Address      Ipkts   Ierrs Opkts   Oerrs Collis
wd0   1500  192.1.1     192.1.1.99   2790    0     9522    2     0     
lo0   2048  127         127.0.0.1    14422   0     14422   0     0     


Waiting for comments...
Dirk
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