On Wed, Aug 09, 2006 at 03:18:12PM -0400, Jack Gates wrote: > This is from my /etc/hosts file > > # Do not remove the following line, or various programs > # that require network functionality will fail. > 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain > > What is the proper way to change this file so that: > localhost.localdomain is replaced with something more useful for > identification of my FC5 box on my network? > > Can I just edit this file or is there another location to do this and > are there any other files that need to change? > > What other information can go in the /etc/hosts file? > > I have tried changing this before but the OS complains when I boot. > It says something like unknown host name or can't determine the host > name. so I have left this alone. It looks like I will need to > change it so I can hopefully get my printer set up for my wife's Win > XP box to use. Changing /etc/hosts won't solve your problem. /etc/hosts is a supplement to DNS, and in emergencies (e.g. no access to DNS) allows limited host name look up. Do not ever remove 127.0.0.1 or rename it. While Linux is fairly robust in this matter, other Unixes can break seriously if you do. Chances are there are better ways to achieve what you want without doing so. You should add few, if any, hosts to /etc/hosts, in case host names or their IP addresses change. DNS should handle all such changes for you. Unless you don't run DNS locally. In that event, add computers on your LAN only. Be prepared for a tedious editing job on each machine every time a machine or its IP address changes, though. E.g: if you have two machines, foo.localdomain and bar.localdomain. Bar might have: 192.168.1.4 foo foo.localdomain and foo might have 192.168.1.42 bar bar.localdomain As you can see, the problem grows exponentially as you add machines. Now you see exactly the problem that lead to the original implementation of DNS. As to your problem, no other computer ever sees the contents of your /etc/hosts, so changing it won't help you. Instead, either use DNS, simply use your machine's IP address on the Windows machine, or enter your machine in that machine's hosts file. -- Charles Curley /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign Looking for fine software \ / Respect for open standards and/or writing? X No HTML/RTF in email http://www.charlescurley.com / \ No M$ Word docs in email Key fingerprint = CE5C 6645 A45A 64E4 94C0 809C FFF6 4C48 4ECD DFDB
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