Name That Tune . . . umm . . . Computer

By Wil Clark, General Access Lab Manager

Don't you just hate it when you set up a new computer, install a bunch of software and then find that some things just don't work? Wouldn't you just love it if you were able to keep that from happening, at least part of the time? If you are a network manager, I have a sure way to ease some of your -- and your customers' -- "new computer blues." If you are not a Network Manager but want to keep reading anyway, that's O.K. If this sounds familiar to you, maybe you ought to let your network manager know.

I can usually tell when someone receives a new computer or runs Simeon for the first time on a campus computer. The phone call begins: "I can read my mail in Simeon but I can't send mail." The first thing I check, and usually the last thing I have to check, is the hostname in DNS (DNS is a facility that translates Internet addresses back and forth between the names that we humans can remember and the numbers that computers require).

Sometimes a network manager forgets to register a "real" name in DNS for new computers. The mail server that Simeon uses to deliver mail is configured to reject mail that does not come from a named computer. That includes computers that still have NTxxxxx.decal.unt.edu for a name.

Not to worry, there is a simple fix: Network managers should assign meaningful names to new computers as soon as they arrive. I read a suggestion from Blair Copeland, UNT's DNS Guru, that essentially said to name the subnet according to the department or organization name and the hostname according to the function the computer serves. That certainly works for me. It will work for the mail server as well. If you like having the inventory decal number in DNS, Bootp or DHCP then put it in as a secondary hostname.n