[dogbreath2200]

I did a search here and a couple other places and turned up nothing, so here goes...

My terminal prompt reads: dell-1100:~ Arthur$
But, my computer name is listed correctly in system preferences as Arthur Etchell's Computer (or, more exactly Arthur-Etchells-Computer.local).

Also, when I turn on web serving the computer name is listed as http://dell-1100.(domain).edu/, a similar name is used for other sharing types. So whence came this dell-1100 name?

I'm really at a loss, any ideas?

[CharlesS]

That's just the DNS name that your ISP (or school)'s DHCP server assigned you.

The reason that shows up in Sharing rather than your Rendezvous address is so that you can give that address to people outside your local network and it will still work.

[Kristoff]

IMHO I think Dynamic DNS updates were broken in 10.3.8.

That's where you get an IP from DHCP and tell DNS your IP and hostname.

It worked for me before 10.3.8 (not including a couple other times Apple broke it) but stopped working after. So, maybe it will be fixed in 10.3.9, or 10.4?

[dogbreath2200]

That seems to make sense, but why is the name used in terminal?

[OptimusG4]

I have the same problem. My computer name in sharing is Powerbook G4 but yet in terminal it shows up as newpc. Odd.

[dogbreath2200]

Anyone have an idea of what might be causing this?

[Kristoff]

the hostname by default is set to AUTOMATIC in /etc/hostconfig

So, when you get an IP from DHCP, you are supposed to be able to tell DNS your hostname and IP, but if it's broken, you end up getting the hostname of the last computer to use that IP. You can hardcode your hostname, but then there will be a disconnect since dynamic dns updates are busted, DNS will still hold the old hostname. Clear as mud?

[Kristoff]

Oh, and you see that name in the terminal, because that's the hostname that you got from DNS---since the dynamic dns updates are borked, you can't tell it the correct hostname.

[OreoCookie]

Kristoff is right on. As a `fix', you can replace -AUTOMATIC- with your hostname, although I wouldn't recommend it if you need to work at school a lot. (You can easily access your computer from other systems, e. g. via ssh, because you always know the current dns name.)

I can understand why dell-1100 bothers you ...
Mine is macmaph1.[dept].[my university].[country], so I can live with it

[Kristoff]

What sucks is that this was working fine prior to 10.3.8.

I take my PB to work, and I have a hostname that I chose.
It used to get an IP and register itself with DNS via dynamic dns, but as of 10.3.8, I end up with some whacked out hostname just like you guys.

It's one of those issues that regresses every now and then.
It's happened on a few builds since 10.1