7-1
Name Service Administration
7
Every machine on a network must have a unique identifier to distinguish itself
from other machines on the network. This is also true for all machines on the
Internet. Thus, every machine is given a host address. A host address has the
form 129.144.79.5, where each of the four numbers separated by periods can be
in the range of 0 to 255. Such addresses are hard to memorize, so each machine
is also given a host name that is associated with its host address. Users
generally use a host name, such as stimpy@tv.net, to access a specific
machine on a given network.
The process by which a host name is associated with or translated to its host
address is called name resolution. It is usually performed by a name service.
Name Services on the Netra Server
The Netra server provides three types of name services:
• Local name service: Translation is done locally (by looking up the name in a
file)
• Network Information Service (NIS): Translation is done by an NIS server
(running on another host)
• Domain Name Service (DNS): Translation is provided by a DNS server
(running either on the Netra server or on another host)
To Next Page
Loading...
