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Full Discussion: Can I change my hostname without messing things up?
Special Forums IP Networking Can I change my hostname without messing things up? Post 302958227 by Ultrix on Tuesday 20th of October 2015 10:28:49 AM
Old 10-20-2015
Can I change my hostname without messing things up?
I noticed my hostname is <my-full-name>s-macbook.local. I'm not sure exactly what information leaves the local network, and whether the hostname is included, but if it is, this would mean people on the Internet can look at my hostname and see who I am. Before anyone says that's not possible, there was a time when someone addressed me by my full name on YouTube, and that was when I was on an account that I had created through a GMail account that didn't have my real name on it, so they must have gotten my real name by looking at my hostname, or at least something similar to that.

So I would like to change my hostname, but I'm not sure if I can do this without messing things up on my local host. I'm afraid if I change things like my IP address or my hostname, I won't be able to use the Internet anymore. Can anyone explain to me how this works? I guess I basically have three questions: 1) Will changing my hostname affect my ability to log onto a network. 2) If so, why? 3) If so, what other information do I need to reconfigure so I can log onto a network again?

Additional information that may be relevant: I have no home network. I always use public WiFi networks.
 

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LEARN ABOUT OPENSOLARIS

netid

netid(4)							   File Formats 							  netid(4)

NAME

       netid - netname database

SYNOPSIS

       /etc/netid

DESCRIPTION

       The  netid file is a local source of information on mappings between netnames (see secure_rpc(3NSL)) and user ids or hostnames in the local
       domain. The netid file can be used in conjunction with, or instead of, the  network source: NIS or  NIS+. The  publickey entry in the  nss-
       witch.conf (see	nsswitch.conf(4)) file determines which of these sources will be queried by the system to translate netnames to local user
       ids or hostnames.

       Each entry in the netid file is a single line of the form:

	 netname uid:gid, gid, gid...

       or

	 netname       0:hostname

       The first entry associates a local user id with a netname. The second entry associates a hostname with a netname.

       The  netid file field descriptions are as follows:

       netname	   The operating system independent network name for the user or host. netname has one of two formats.	The format used to specify
		   a host is of the form:

		   unix.hostname@domain

		   where  hostname is the name of the host and	domain is the network domain name.

		   The format used to specify a user id is of the form:

		   unix.uid@domain

		   where uid is the numerical id of the user and domain is the network domain name.

       uid	   The numerical id of the user (see   passwd(4)). When specifying a host name, uid is always zero.

       group	   The	numerical  id  of  the group the user belongs to (see  group(4)). Several groups, separated by commas, may be listed for a
		   single uid.

       hostname    The local hostname (see  hosts(4)).

       Blank lines are ignored.  Any part of a line to the right of a `#' symbol is treated as a comment.

EXAMPLES

       Example 1 A sample netid file.

       Here is a sample netid file:

	 unix.789@West.Sun.COM	  789:30,65
	 unix.123@Bldg_xy.Sun.COM 123:20,1521
	 unix.candlestick@campus1.bayarea.EDU	 0:candlestick

FILES

       /etc/group	 groups file

       /etc/hosts	 hosts database

       /etc/netid	 netname database

       /etc/passwd	 password file

       /etc/publickey	 public key database

SEE ALSO

       netname2user(3NSL), secure_rpc(3NSL), group(4), hosts(4), nsswitch.conf(4), passwd(4), publickey(4)

SunOS 5.11							    23 May 1994 							  netid(4)
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