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Darth_Tanion · May 26, 2005, 07:37 PM

I have an IP Cop firewall that I am using to split my network in half. My setup consists of a Netgear router which goes out to my office netork of 5 or so computers, one of which is my IP Cop box. The IP Cop box then goes to a switch which I plug customer computers into. So essentially I have an office network and a customer network connected via an IP Cop firewall. I do this so customer's computers which are infected with viruses cannot infect my office network but they can still share files and the same internet connection. The problem I am having is that whenever I plug a customer computer into the customer network I have to use the full IP addresse to access my file server on my office network rather than just being able to use the host name. E.G. I have to type \\192.168.0.2 rather than being able to type \\apollo in order to access files on the computer apollo. I cannot figure out how to get around this and can't really think of what to type into a Google search to help me find the answers. I have tried adding aliases and hosts to IP Cop but it just doesn't seem to work and the IP Cop forums don't seem to want to send me an email to let me register. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

ScottGem · May 27, 2005, 05:15 AM

I have no familiarity with IP Cop so this is just guessing. If you can't access PCs within the company segment by computer name, then it would appear that IP Cop is disabling that feature for some security reasons.

The only thing I can suggest to try (other than getting help from them) is to use a Hosts or LMHosts file. These are text files that sort of perfom a DNS function by translating an IP into a name. You could have your customer's PCs automatically download such a file when they connect.

fredg · May 28, 2005, 06:47 AM

Hi,
I will not guess.
Your best bet is to contact the IP Cop makers.
Best of luck,
fredg

SESaskDFC · May 28, 2005, 04:18 PM

Originally Posted by Darth_Tanion

I have tried adding aliases and hosts to IP Cop but it just doesn't seem to work and the IP Cop forums don't seem to want to send me an email to let me register. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Looks like Fredg should have guessed.. It appears they have tried to do that already!!

Murray

ScottGem · May 28, 2005, 04:56 PM

Originally Posted by fredg

I will not guess.

Gee Fred, that hasn't stopped you before! I've seen plenty of answers from you that were pure guesswork.

There's nothing wrong with guessing if its an educated guess. I put that disclaimer in just so Tanion would know that it was a guess and not an experienced answer.

BTW, where you been for the last 6 weeks? I hope you weren't ill. Though I must say, its been nice and quiet with real help being given and no bickering.

Darth_Tanion · May 29, 2005, 11:20 PM

Ok here's how it turned out. There is a section in the IP Cop administration interface that lets you add hosts. I actually tried this once before and it didn't seem to work but perhaps I tried it wrong as when I tried it again it worked. Basically, it seems all you have to do is tell IP Cop, in the hosts section, what the name of the computer is and it's IP address and that's it. Thanks to everyone who lended a hand, hope this helps anybody else who has this problem.

ScottGem · May 30, 2005, 03:12 AM

Ok, that makes sense and sort of goes with what I was saying. IP Cop is apparently disabling the DNS lookup from outside your LAN. It allows you add names to restore the functionality. I suspect it may actually write to Windows Hosts file, but may use its own list.

Darth_Tanion · May 31, 2005, 09:39 PM

As an interesting post script I should mention that sometimes now I have to type in "\\apollo." rather than just "\\apollo" and sometimes I don't. Not exactly sure why that is but it's better than how it was that is for sure.