Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.mel.connect.com.au!news.syd.connect.com.au!the-fly.zip.com.au!zipper.zip.com.au!not-for-mail
From: sue@zip.com.au (Sue Blake)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Hostname for box w/ part time internet connection
Date: 5 Jul 1997 05:52:23 GMT
Organization: WeLearn
Lines: 59
Message-ID: <5pknen$l9c$1@the-fly.zip.com.au>
References: <33B462A3.C9A68B9C@auburn.campus.mci.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 203.12.97.1
X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 BETA-950824 PL0]
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:43975
Anthony Jenkins (ajenkins@auburn.campus.mci.net) wrote:
> What do I set as the host name for my machine, which occasionally
> dials-up a connection to the internet? Do I use the domain name of my
> ISP, or would that be naughty? I have a single PC running FreeBSD
> (Win95 on another partition), no network (though I soon hope to delve
I'm in a similar situation, but I'm also hoping to connect the two other
freebsd and linux(alpha) machines here to the one (2.2.1) that occasionally
dials my ISP. The arguments that followed this question are probably
constructive in a general sense, but don't help us much. While you enjoy
your arguments on the topic of perfection, let me add a question and a
whinge. I've got a lot to get off my chest, sorry.
My question is:
Should I a) fiddle b) ask here (what Q?) c) employ someone to help me set
up my personal computer which is supposed to be for fun d) read the two or
three books I have read but don't understand e) buy some more books f) enrol
in some university course f) install another operating system ?
I've found 3 or 4 files in /etc that seem to have host names and IP numbers
and so on. I randomly edit them every so often but they never "look right".
I've asked and been told to read certain books, which I've purchased, and
nothing past page 5 makes much sense because its context is always far
removed from what I'll ever be doing. Maybe I need a book marked out with
underlines like those pushy bibles :-)
I've asked why there's no book that's an intro to the available books, and
been told that there's a lot of in-between information that you get only in
the tutorials when you go to uni, it's not written down anywhere except
perhaps in sysadmins' genes. Fine. But this is my occasional learning
adventure, my personal computer, _not_ my life's work.
I will read anything. I will try anything. I will listen to anything. I'll
waste time learning futile stuff for the sheer joy of learning, if there is
any joy in it. But here I want to do something _this_ year, or know that I
can't. Usually I learn new stuff very quickly by reading manuals and so on.
Now I've got ten megs of on line and six feet of hard copy manuals. It's a
treasure-hunt to discover which order to take them in. I understand, for
example, about 60% of the O'Reilly System Administration book and 20% of the
man pages I randomly read for masochistic kicks. I read two perl books and
made perl do a couple of simple useful things. But the networking stuff is
to me so terribly off the planet with no starting point or course through.
If it's going to take 2 years' reading or a $20,000 course to learn all
about networking before I can simply read my email and grab a file from the
kitchen terminal, fine, but tell me now. And if it's not that hard, tell me
what I do need to learn and what I _don't_ need, or whether I should even
bother trying.
Regards,
-*Sue*-
(PS, If you say "give up" I'll blow you a raspberry)
sue@welearn.com.au