Hi again (with a red face!)
Sure, but the IPs are dynamic so the hosts file is out, right?
Missed that (another "senior moment")! :-( Now I remember one reason I have been using static IP addresses :-) One way to cheat a bit would be to assign addresses but tie them to the MAC address of the ethernet card of each box, i.e. add something like host box1 { hardware ethernet 00:A0:CC:E4:86:CD; fixed-address 192.168.1.222; } to /etc/dhcpd.conf Then you could use the /etc/hosts route. Not an elegant solution but, what the hell, this is a rear-guard action :-) Unfortunately I have no dhcpd server running so I cannot test the following, but include it as a potential more elegant solution [and also as an attempt at face-saving :-) ] I believe there should be a file /etc/dhcpd.leases with sections like lease 192.168.1.25 { starts 2 2001/07/31 15:23:47; ends 3 2001/08/01 03:23:47; hardware ethernet 00:a0:cc:e7:6a:b9; uid 00:A0:CC:E4:86:CD; client-hostname "box3"; } If so with some cat|awk|grep|sed piping you should be able automatically to extract the dotted quad which goes with each host and give the former to ping to chew on. As I say, I can't test this. However, if you are masochistic enough to want to continue this thread, feel free to send me a sample copy of that /etc/dhcpd.leases file and I'll see if I can get a short shell script you could try instead of ping. On the more positive side, at least you now know the dangers of posting a query :-) doug -- Douglas R Waud, Professor Emeritus -- Pharmacology University of Massachusetts Medical School Mailing address: 17 Lantern Lane, Shrewsbury, MA 01545-2006