access computer via name without editing hosts file?

[Matrix Mole]

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I've got a network of about 7 computers all running various OS'es (2
gentoo, 3 mac, 1 slackware, 1 windows). Around 4-5 years ago when I
first put this network together I was able to access any of the
computers by their assigned computer name. For some reason when I
performed a router bios upgrade (using a D-Link at the time) I lost that
ability and from then on, was required to use either IP address or edit
the hosts file on every computer. This became extremely frustrating
when, for whatever reason, a computer would pull a different IP address
from the router. At that time I just went into the router config and
hard coded all the IPs so that I wouldn't have to worry about the
changes and could keep my hosts files intact. Since then I've removed
the router from the network, replacing it with my k6-2/350 Gentoo box.
On the gentoo box I'm usin dnsmasq as my DNS forwarder/resolver for the
network, along with acting as my DHCP server. I was under the impression
from my reading of the dnsmasq man pages and tutorials that it would
allow me to browse my local network via name resolution without
requiring to manipulate the hosts file on my various computers, but no
such luck. It appears that when I issue a request for a computer by
name, the actual request never even goes out onto the network, it checks
the local hosts file and if it's not there it merely spits back that the
host does not exist. Is there some way to force the local machines to
look at the DNS resolver on my router to get the IP of a computer based
on it's name? Do I need to use machine.localnet or somesuch dot'ed
notation to force it to look out on the network for the machine names?

Matrix Mole
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