Beginner Setup - Hostnames rather than IP's

Hi, Aman, and welcome to the UTM Community!

That article was copied two years ago from a post I maintain here, so I don't know if the plagiarist has updated his stuff to reflect the changes made in my post.  Please review DNS Best Practice and say what is different in your setup.

Cheers - Bob

Hi Bob, 

I don't have an internal DNS server (was planning to have UTM box be centrally managing network).

Am I right in assuming UTM does not have a full DNS server? - ref to http://feature.astaro.com/forums/17359-utm-formerly-asg-feature-requests/suggestions/203286-networking-full-dns-server

Cheers, Aman

To accomplish what you want in WebAdmin, just create a Host definition for each numeric IP you would like to identify.

Cheers - Bob

Tried doing this (even ticked Reverse DNS) but it doesn't seem to be working. One of the servers on the LAN is called 'datacentre' and is at 192.168.1.100. I can't access it at all using \\datacentre or datacentre on RDP. 

Attached is the screengrab. Any ideas?

Ahah! I thought this was a question about seeing names in reports instead of IPs!

Your DHCP server must assign the local domain for that to work.  Your Host definition must include the full Hostname, datacentre.domain.tld.

Cheers - Bob

At risk of sounding VERY stupid, I haven't actually got another DHCP server on the network, or any sort of AD running. Previous to the UTM going in, a Netgear router used to handle DHCP. I am assuming that the UTM doesn't come with full internal DHCP features hence needs something like a DHCP server provided by Windows Server or something?

The UTM's DHCP server does indeed do this.  Just fill in 'Domain' with domain.tld.

Cheers - Bob

Progress! The UTM is now listing hostnames in reports. Screenshot attached. 

But, I still cannot get reverse DNS working. At all. Following your DNS Best Practice post but no ball. Screenshots attached. What may be wrong with this setup? (UTM IP address is 192.168.1.1)

Disable/delete your two Request Routes and remove the IP of "Internal (Address)" from 'Forwarders' and then try again.  By the way, the 'IPv4 Leases' tab shows the name of the devices.

Cheers - Bob

Disable/delete your two Request Routes and remove the IP of "Internal (Address)" from 'Forwarders' and then try again.  By the way, the 'IPv4 Leases' tab shows the name of the devices.

Cheers - Bob

Still not working. Is it worth resetting the UTM and trying again do you think? 

What's not working?  Please insert a picture.

Cheers - Bob

I'm still unable to access anything on the network internally by hostnames - networked printers are not working unless IP's are used, cannot access SMB shares etc. Tried following the instructions but still no ball. 

Starting to think it could be an error in the UTM installation possibly so wondering a fresh install might be a good idea? Should functionality such as reaching internal network shares by typing \\[machinename]\[sharename] be working as default? 

I'm not a Microsoft guy, but I bet that might work with a domain - maybe with a Workgroup.

Again, without seeing pictures of actual configurations and error messages, I have difficulty using my intuition to see possible issues.

Cheers - Bob