Networking
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      1. Stratodesk NoTouch Knowledge base
      2. NoTouch Center
      3. Networking

      Network configuration of a NoTouch Device

      Most configurations will utilize DHCP to provide network information to the NoTouch devices but other options are available

       A proper network configuration consists of these pieces of information:

      • IP address
      • gateway
      • subnet mask
      • broadcast address
      • hostname
      • DNS (Domain Name Service) server addresses

      If using DHCP, all these will be set automatically. Using DHCP or not is defined on a per-interface basis, see here: IP configuration

      If you either need to fine-tune DHCP operation, or want to use static (non-DHCP) IP configuration, you have many configuration settings to adapt to your network.

      Host name

      These parameters set the local host name:

      • Host name. Host name, such as wrkstation1
      • Domain name. Domain suffix, such as mycompany.com

      More information - especially on really cool things you can do with regards to prefixes and suffixes and auto-generated unique host names is available here: Host name

      DNS servers

      In order to look up host names and resolve them to their respective IP addresses, the system needs to ask DNS servers. Thus, you need to supply a list of IP addresses to the system that can be queried for host names. This is done in the "DNS servers" subsection. Simply add more and more entries.

      In NoTouch Center, use a comma-separated list of IP addresses.

        • This field is only used when using Static Network configuration. If you wish to use "Alternate DNS servers" when using DHCP, see #DHCP options using "Prepend DNS" parameter

      If you want to just add one DNS server, but still keep those that are supplied by the DHCP server, see below at #DHCP options and check out the "Prepend DNS" parameter.

      Predefined hosts

      If you do not use DNS or simply want to override or locally define some IP address -> host name mappings, use the "Predefined hosts" section. Add more and more entries as needed.

      In NoTouch Center, use IPADDRESS=HOSTNAME notation, multiple entries separated by a comma. To remember the form IPADDRESS=HOSTNAME, think of the structure of an /etc/hosts file. IP address goes left (key), host name goes right (value).

      DHCP options

      NoTouch OS uses a regular dhclient for maximum compatibility with all available DHCP servers on the market. The DHCP settings can be configured in various ways - you have complete access to all options.

      • Use DHCP hostname. Force using the DHCP host name. Usually not necessary to be set.
      • FQDN. Set the FQDN (fully qualified domain name) option that will be sent to the server. You may enter a static string or use these variables:
        • $hostname. The full host name, either set by configuration or generated from the configured host name generation mechanism
        • $prefix. The value of the name prefix parameter.
        • $suffix. The value of the name suffix parameter.
      • FQDN Server Update. Update the dynamic DNS with the fully qualified domain name.
      • FQDN Encoded. Set the FQDN encoded option.
      • User class. Set a specific user class that is then presented to the DHCP server and may lead the DHCP to hand out a specific configuration. Supports Macro expansion.
      • Client Identifier. Set the DHCP "client identifier" option. Supports Macro expansion.
      • Set Stratodesk vendor class identifier. In case the vendor class identifier string is on its empty default, NoTouch OS will set Stratodesk NoTouch OS if this parameter is on, otherwise leave empty. (added in OS 2.40.4380)
      • Vendor class identifier. Customize the DHCP "vendor class identifier" setting. Supports Macro expansion. If empty, the setting will be determined by the "Set Stratodesk vendor class identifier setting above. If set, its value has precedence over the aforementioned parameter. (added in OS 2.40.4380)
      • Lease Time. Set a lease time in seconds. Typically you would leave that empty to work with the default values.
      • Prepend DNS. If you want to configure a "static" DNS server that gets used before any DHCP ones ("prepend"), type in an IP address or a comma-separated list of IP addresses of your DNS servers.
      • Initial Interval. The initial interval in seconds. Default value: 1
      • Retry. The retry timing in seconds. Default value: 1

      More DHCP client customizing

      • Send custom DHCP options. You can instruct the DHCP client to send any DHCP option to your server, not only those mentioned above. The "Custom DHCP options" parameter is essentially a list of key-value pairs, option name and option value, and these will be transformed into a send option-name "option-value" statement in the configuration file. While the client separates key and value entries, in NoTouch Center you would simply write a comma-separated list like this: key1=value1,key2=value2 - Note: The option names must be valid DHCP option names that the ISC DHCP software suite understands. Please consult the appropriate ISC DHCP manuals or Linux man pages like http://linux.die.net/man/5/dhclient.conf
      • User-defined configuration file entries. Furthermore, you can write arbitrary lines to the dhclient.conf file. That means you are not writing DHCP options here, but rather the configuration file! See http://linux.die.net/man/5/dhclient.conf for more information.

      Proxy settings

      NoTouch allows to define system level proxy settings from OS 2.40.1310 on. We advise to not use these however (use the per-connection proxy configuration instead!), because

      • different applications in NoTouch may or may not react to these (remember, NoTouch contains a lot of 3rd-party modules that Stratodesk has no control over)
      • you will most certainly have to exclude traffic to your management server
      • system level proxy settings may provide difficulties for people traveling with their systems.

      Warning: You will lock yourself out of your client systems if you define proxy settings and forget to make sure that NoTouch can contact its management server!

      These are the proxy parameters under the "Networking" parameters:

      • HTTP proxy. The HTTP proxy server in hostname:port notation, such as myproxy.intranet.corp:3128
      • Use HTTP proxy for all protocols. This is on by default, and will make use the HTTP proxy for HTTPS and FTP as well.
      • No proxy for. A comma separated list of hostnames or IP addresses that the system will always contact directly. The asterisk (*) is an allowed wildcard character. By default, these things will be excluded: localhost,127.0.0.1,localaddress,.localdomain.com - you may want to add your management server here.
      • HTTPS proxy. The HTTPS proxy server in hostname:port notation, such as myproxy.intranet.corp:3128
      • FTP proxy. The FTP proxy server in hostname:port notation, such as myproxy.intranet.corp:3128 - NoTouch does not use the old outdated FTP protocol but some applications like Firefox might.

      Many connections allow their own proxy settings. These may or may not inherit from these system-level proxy settings:

      Interfaces

      Please see here for more information on the Interface specific settings: Interface configuration