localhost or LAN addresses in /etc/hosts

[Bart Silverstrim]

Derek Broughton wrote:
> Bart Silverstrim wrote:
> 
>>> Now if you let a Router set your
>>> ip numbers it will do it but not the same way all the time. You add
>>> another item and ALL ip numbers can change.
>> Depends on the router. The part that differentiates how it works is
>> the DHCP server software. You CAN tell your DHCP server, if it
>> supports it, to always give a specific MAC address a specific IP
>> address just like you can configure it to hand out an address for a
>> specified period of time, and DNS servers are able to tie a specific
>> record to a specific IP.
>>
>> If your router is bargain basement then yeah, it'll seem random if it
>> lacks features. But it can most certainly be done, and in many cases
>> if the feature is there the user just never bothered to configure it
>> so they're using the defaults.
> 
> Not to mention, most DHCP servers will reassign exactly the same address 
> to a device every time it asks, provided the address pool is large 
> enough that it doesn't need to recycle them.  This isn't guaranteed, but 
> it is extremely likely.

Don't rely on it though!

I've had plenty of cases where DHCP servers will goof with it at an 
inopportune moment. It depends on the implementation.