Dnsmasq

dnsmasq provides LAN DNS caching, as well as static IPs for all your local machine names via their MAC addresses. It's perfect!

You don't even need local hosts files or to fiddle with wifi router, just let dnsmasq do it all. FUck yeah.

Configuration

bitpost:/etc/dnsmasq/dnsmasq.conf

Adding a new host

Add a new line to the config file with an available IP, and host and MAC of the new box.

Windows DNS resolution

Windows apparently puts a suffix on names, unless you end them with a dot, so sometimes in Windows you have to use something like this:

 \\hive.\reservoir