Comments on: Hostnames

By: Martijn van Steenbergen

Martijn van Steenbergen — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 08:50:03 +0000

This is a cool and old idea. :-) It is used e.g. in The Art of Automounting (1991).

By: Cristi

Cristi — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:13:20 +0000

Another place if you are looking for naming your devices http://namingschemes.com

By: ted kekatos

ted kekatos — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 02:16:52 +0000

I’ve been using this method for more than 10 years. I stick to eletrical conducting elements. GOLD, SILVER, PLATINUM, COPPER, CARBON, LEAD, etc. etc. It’s a great naming convention..

By: Ash

Ash — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:09:47 +0000

I personally use mythical weapons. My cell is always Grungnir, my iPod is Mjonir, My computer is Excalibur etc.

By: Dan M

Dan M — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:48:20 +0000

That is a fantastic idea.

It’s also a good excuse to get a cool periodic table, especially while they look so perfectly balanced:

http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2010/04/enjoy-this-beauty-it-will-not-last.html

By: Christophe-Marie

Christophe-Marie — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:28:28 +0000

This is really one of the coolest naming schemes I’ve ever heard about, especially because it offers both hostnames and IP addresses.

If you are looking for alternative naming schemes, I recommend you have a look here http://www.namingschemes.com/

By: Anon

Anon — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:43:34 +0000

Hmm…cool idea, but probably doesn’t scale very well.

I’ve opted for superheroes names instead. Hell, you can even make up your own.

CaptainSweatpants file server anyone?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 05:58:02 +0000

A long time ago, my LAN support group absorbed another division in the company. Naturally we had to become acquainted with the network rather quickly. It sure was inconvenient that instead of server names such as dc1, dc2, dns1, etc we had all these chemical elements to map out. Since we didn’t know them by heart, this created another layer of abstraction on top to determine function. So I guess I’m not a fan of this method and prefer naming them after their function.

By: John Manoogian III

John Manoogian III — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:24:55 +0000

I do this too at work (140proof.com). I got the idea from the engineering machines at the umich.edu computing lab. Fun to see that others are using the same scheme. :)

By: Geoff Greer

Geoff Greer — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:09:22 +0000

Actually I do use DHCP and DNS. I set up static leases for my machines. If anyone joins my wireless network, they’ll get an IP in the 150+ range.

By: thf

thf — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 20:44:26 +0000

I hate to be negative, but this means you are still stuck in the early 90s manually assigning IPs to your hosts… *shudder* It is 2010, use DHCP and DNS!

My firewall is named “fw”. My fileserver is “fs”. And I never have to think of the IPs.

By: lowe

lowe — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 19:29:41 +0000

I actually do almost the same thing, all computers are named after noble gases. Just to keep some constraints on how many computers I can have at home ;)

By: Issac Kelly

Issac Kelly — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 19:02:57 +0000

Very cool, you could also pre-create a hosts file for every machine, and setup dhcp for the 150-254 range (just to be safe for what could happen in our lifetime)

By: James Savage

James Savage — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 17:47:50 +0000

You are my new favorite person. I though I was the only one who did this. On a similar note I name my Bluetooth devices after elementary particles, not in any real scheme, but just to keep the pattern with everything else.

By: Jeremy Hitchcock

Jeremy Hitchcock — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 17:40:28 +0000

Love the naming scheme. We used to use elements at DynDNS and never thought to use the shorter names until we got too far in. Moved away from elements when we got to the hard ones and more importantly, when we ran out of elements. We cheated with some gems and compounds too :)

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:11:37 +0000

That’s a good idea, actually.

I personally, being a major geek and sci-fi fan, use the names of star trek ships (and sometimes those of other shows) for my systems (albeit not being a system admin for anything other than a laptop and a desktop and the occasional family computer).

Generally, the space stations are servers, desktops are named after starships, laptops are after smaller ships/shuttles, and mobile devices are after probes and similar.

By: theangryangel.co.uk

theangryangel.co.uk — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:34:19 +0000

Server Naming Schemes & IP Assignments…

It seems that I’ve only ever hinted to my current host naming scheme, and that was all the way back in 2007.

If you’re not familiar with the concept of hostnames (for those non-techies out there), then a hostname is exactly what it sounds like. Ho…

By: Hank

Hank — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:37:50 +0000

Works for me, too! The IP address for my indestructable system that’s always up even when the power is out for three weeks has the atomic number of unobtainium.

Did you post this because you thought I’d make fun of you? :-)