Setting up network

[Charles Swiger]

On Mar 31, 2005, at 4:52 PM, Jonathan Arnold wrote:
> Something I've never been able to figure out. When installing a
> new machine, and you come to the "Network Configuration" dialog,
> what do you put in for the Host: and Domain: if it is a machine
> on an internal network (ie., 192.168.1.149)?  Does it matter?
> Just give it a simple hostname and be done with it? Make something
> up?

If you're using DHCP via one of the ubiquitous broadband 
firewall/gateway thingies from Linksys or D-Link or whoever, it really 
doesn't matter.  However, most people like to give their machines a 
name, anyway, even if they don't have a domain to attach it to.

You might want to get your own domain, in which case you control the 
names in it, or one can use dyndns.org or one of the similar sites to 
obtain a reversible hostname in a domain like homeip.net, even when 
using a dynamic IP.

"Making stuff up" is ok, so long as you don't make stuff up that 
conflicts with properly configured names.  Pretending to be a host in a 
domain you don't belong to is considered impolite at best, and if you 
have a local config problem than ends up generating errors or messages 
sent to the real host (think bounced mail), you will not thrill whoever 
it is that has to clean up the mess....

-- 
-Chuck