Apple Workgroup Server 8550 - Manual (Page 30)

The hosts file contains a list of host names and associated IP addresses. The
hosts file provides a subset of the functionality of a name server. Because
maintaining the hosts file can become difficult in a network that has many
hosts, you should use a name server if one is available. If you use a name
server and a hosts file, the hosts file is checked before the name server.
For information about the format of the hosts file, see “Hosts File Format”
later in this chapter.
9 If you want to take advantage of implicit domain searching, enter your
domain name information.
TCP/IP applications can automatically search for computers you identify
by host name (for example, when you send mail to “[email protected]”).
To configure information that makes the search possible, type your local
domain name in the “Starting domain name” box and type your adminis-
trative domain in the “Ending domain name” box.
The local domain is the name of your own local network domain. For
example, if your server is named “server.mktng.east.xyzcorp.com,” your
local domain name is “mktng.east.xyzcorp.com.” The administrative
domain is the name of the larger domain that contains your local domain. It
must match the end of the local domain. For example, if your local domain
is “mktng.east.xyzcorp.com,” your administrative domain is
“xyzcorp.com.”
The names you type in the two boxes define a range of domain names.
When you use a host name, TCP/IP tries to resolve the name by appending
each possible suffix in the range. For example, if your local domain is
“mktng.east.xyzcorp.com” and your administrative domain is
“xyzcorp.com,” and you specify that you want to search for a computer
named “eng,” TCP/IP will search for computers that have these names:
eng.mktng.east.xyzcorp.com
eng.east.xyzcorp.com
eng.mktng.xyzcorp.com
eng.xyzcorp.com
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