dns file

[hollyhats]

In my access logs, I would like to see domains instead of IPs. My server tells me to do so I need to put an empty file in my wusage directory called dns.

Can anyone explain how I do this?

I use westhost, if that helps.
Thanks

[dingman]

if you have shell access:

$ cd wusage
$ echo "" > dns

If you have to ftp, try something like file->new->text document

don't open the file, just upload it to your wusage directory, and re-name it 'dns'.

I'm assuming you know where to find this 'wusage' directory, since I've never heard of it.

[hollyhats]

Thank you, I got the dns file into the directory.
It does work most of the time.
What I don't understand is why the IP # shows for some and the Domain for others. Shouldn't this be consistent?

[amoore]

Some IP addresses don't have a name to resolve to, so you'll see the IP address. Reverse DNS (the stuff that maps IP addresses to names) is not as complete as forward DNS (which map names to IP addresses)

[dingman]

It's also the case that you may see a lot of IPs without reverse mapping in your logs from dial-up users, since many ISPs don't bother with DNS names for the IPs in their modem pool. Some do, some don't, and there really doesn't seem to be a compelling reason to do it either way.