[headbirth]

Why does Terminal show my connection at the prompt when I'm either connected via dialup or airport?

Is this a security issue?

[piracy]

No.

[Chuckit]

What do you mean it "shows your connection"? I haven't noticed my PowerBook doing anything special when I'm connected to an Airport network.

[Kvasir]

Originally Posted by headbirth

Why does Terminal show my connection at the prompt when I'm either connected via dialup or airport?

Is this a security issue?

You can make the prompt anything you want. My terminal is green text on a black background, but my prompt is yellow text, like this:

<day of the week> month/date <userid>
<path of current directory> ->

eg.

Thu. 05/26 testuser
/usr/local/bin ->

Search www.osxfaq.com for custom terminal prompt, or some such keywords.

[headbirth]

I'm not talking about the colors.

When not connected it gives my name at the prompt (johndoe!) when connected it gives something like (dialup-4: johndoe!) or even some other odd names when connected to public networks.

[Angus_D]

Because that is the host name of your computer at that time. As of 10.4, it will try and establish the host name thus:

1. If the DHCP or BootP server for the primary IP address provides a name, use that.
2. If there is a valid name returned by a reverse DNS query for the primary IP address, use that.
3. The local hostname specified in the Sharing pane.
4. The name "localhost"

You're probably getting the name from 2 or 1. You can override this setting by editing /etc/hostconfig and changing it from AUTOMATIC to something you specify.

This is not a security risk, as all that information is determinable anyway.

[Big Mac]

It definitely is not a security risk, but I don't know why that value will replace your Mac's Rendez, er, Bonjour name, which is what is usually used in Terminal. It never happens when I am connected through Airport (at least in Panther), but it does happen (at least sometimes) when I am connected through ethernet. Why not leave the Bonjour name?

[headbirth]

So, my understanding here i that my ISP or the network administrator has assigned this name to my connection. Correct?

[FeralCat]

More like that is the name that the IP address your ISP provided to you resolves to through DNS. You can change the prompt, as people have said. I believe you want to change the PS1 environment variable. If you're using bash as your login shell, just do:

export PS1="$ "

and it will set your prompt to a plain $ character. If this results in something like "export: not found", you're probably using tcsh as your login shell, and you need to do:

set prompt = "$ "

If that doesn't work, I don't know. But, if the bash command works, you can create a .bashrc file in your home directory with that command and it will be run everytime you login. If you're using tcsh, make a .tcshrc file. (Note the '.' that starts those two files. These are hidden files in your home directory.)

[Kvasir]

Right, that's what I was getting at with my post above. In my .tcshrc I have the line

set prompt="%{\033[33;40m%}%d. %W/%D %n \n %/ -> %{\033[36;40m%} "

I get the same, custom prompt whether I connect via modem, wireless DSl at home, wireless or ethernet at work, etc, etc.

[headbirth]

Got it. Thanks