one odd question

[fatTrav]

here's an odd question for ya'll to grapple with. i want to set up my linux (rh7.2, maybe 7.3...not sure)box to serve web pages and junk on my university's network. i'd like to rig it up so that "fattrav.myUniversity.edu" will direct folks to my pages. i don't think that is possible, but a few friends believe it is. i can give myself a static IP (our network admin hates that, btw) but that is about it. "fattrav.myUniversity.edu" is in no conjunction with my actual univesity and is something i'd like to do so folks don't have to write out the IP to hit my box.

any suggestions to the plausability of this and suggestions as to how to accomplish this are very welcome and appreciated.

fatTrav

[Bokkenka]

You'll have some trouble getting it into the DNS servers...

Only the domain name is registered -- Not the individual computers. When you call out to a page, www.myuniv.edu, the DNS usually only returns the myuniv.edu main IP. Then, your computer calls out to myuniv.edu, and asks for the IP of the computer named www. Usually, the webserver is the main registered computer, so it doesn't matter much.

Basically, it's the difference between a phone number and a person's name. You dial the phone number to get to the company, then ask the secretary to transfer you to the person's name.

But, if you're trying to spoof a computername on the Univervsity's network, you'll have to somehow get the University system to accept the name and IP combo.

Otherwise, you can use a Dynamic DNS service. You pick your computername, and run a daemon that updates the DynDNS server's list. There's no-ip.com. When somebody calls out to fattrav.no-ip.com, the no-ip.com IP is returned, and their DNS server looks up your current IP in their list, and returns it to the calling computer.

[bastard23]

fatTrav,
Since you don't have the uni admins on your side, you can't get fattrav.yourschool.edu. Maybe you can convice them to setup a sub domain like fattrav.students.yourschool.edu. That would be cool, but depends on your school network policies and what the admins are allowed/want to do. Small school, maybe, eh? Make friends w/ the admins if you can (or want to.)

You could also just register fattrav.domain. It should still give out your static IP, but probably won't be accessable outside of your uni. I'm not really sure about this but in theory (my personal theory) it would work. Try the Dynamic DNS service first.

If not that, then you can get your friends to update their host file. /etc/hosts in UNIXie OSes and c:\windows\hosts or some such in MS. If it's just your friends this will work. Try this first and make sure you your friends can really access your machine. This is easiest as only you and your friends need to change anything.

This is FYI only, I'm not advocating breaking any policies, laws, moral or social codes.

Good Luck,
chris