slightly OT Win98 DNS question

[Keith G. Murphy]

Edward Schernau wrote:
> 
> I've got a W98/Samba LAN running with a 3Com OfficeConnect LANModem for
> shared internet access.  Periodically, like every 10 minutes, it dials
> out, due to a DNS request for the workgroup/domain (same) name.
> 
> Any fix for this?  Can I just put a dummy address in all the host files?
> 
This is not related to Samba, very much, but I thought I'd post the
answer here since this sort of thing happens often with Windows
machines.

These are broadcasts that are supposed to happen on the local network
only.

Make sure the IP address and netmask of the Win98 machines matches what
the LANModem thinks the local network ought to be.  For example, if the
Win98 machine has:
	Address: 192.168.100.100
	Netmask: 255.255.0.0

And the LANModem (never worked with them, may look different, but you
should get the idea) has:
	Address: 192.168.100.101
	Netmask: 255.255.255.0

then it might dial out to route the broadcasts by the Win98 machine,
because they are outside what it thinks the local net ought to be.  This
is especially tricky because some equipment do their addresses like:
	a.b.c.d/y

where y is the number of bits used for the network part of the address;
i.e., as another way of showing you the netmask.

You can use tcpdump if you have it to help you see what's really going
on.