>>>>> "Peter" == Peter Seebach <seebs@plethora.net> writes:
    Peter> Well, I'm stuck with a commute.  I alternate between staying at a
    Peter> friend's house (fixed IP address, gateway, and DNS, and a hostname
    Peter> in his domain) and being at a meeting (dhcp, no hostname, needs
    Peter> proxies).

    Peter> It would be really nice if there were a way to have the system
    Peter> pick a strategy on boot.

  Agreed. Even better: pick a strategy on resume from sleep!

    Peter> Proposal: 'etcswitch'.  There would be directories
    Peter> /etc/switch/foo, and during boot, if 'etcswitch' is enabled,
    Peter> *before* normal config files are read, you get a little prompt on
    Peter> /etc/switch/*, letting you pick a configuration.  (Before it nukes
    Peter> your old files, it presumably copies them, and you might have a
    Peter> few special ones like /etc/switch/previous.)

  This would be a good thing, I agree, but I have a better suggestion:
  1. get your friend to install dhcp on his network, giving you a fixed IP
	address. Use dhcp all the time.

  2. we need to modify our /etc/dhclient-script to allow configuration of
  more things. If the dhcp server doesn't provide them, then they need to
  be taken from some file indexed by default gateway and/or IP address
  assigned. These would include:
	- SMTP smart host if applicable
	- HTTP/FTP proxy  if applicable
	- NIS domain
	- DNS search order

  Probably, the default gateway should just pick a configuration from
/etc/switch! 

   :!mcr!:            |  Network and security consulting/contract programming
   Michael Richardson | IPsec, VPN, Firewalls, PKI, network design, Unix admin
 Personal: http://www.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca/People/Michael_Richardson/Bio.html
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	ON HUMILITY: To err is human, to moo bovine.