From owner-freebsd-questions Sun Jul 21 18:53:42 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id SAA08092 for questions-outgoing; Sun, 21 Jul 1996 18:53:42 -0700 (PDT) Received: from pegasus.rutgers.edu (pegasus.rutgers.edu [128.6.10.45]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id SAA08087 for ; Sun, 21 Jul 1996 18:53:40 -0700 (PDT) Received: (paradox@localhost) by pegasus.rutgers.edu (8.6.12+bestmx+oldruq+newsunq/8.5) id VAA15311; Sun, 21 Jul 1996 21:53:24 -0400 Date: Sun, 21 Jul 96 21:53:24 EDT From: Red Barchetta To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: running system with no hostname... Message-ID: Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk I just recently installed 2.1.5R on my system. I have to say I am impressed with the installer, which is massively improved from 2.1.0R, which I installed and then zapped when 2.1.5R was announced one day later :) Anyway, my question/problem stems from the fact that I connect to the internet via a dialup PPP link (haven't tried yet under FreeBSD) and that I therefore do not have a hostname assigned to my machine. For now, I have placed an arbitrary name in the "hostname" field of /etc/sysconfig, but I get all sorts of daemons telling me on botup that the hostname (obviously) doesn't exist. I know I can turn off things like sendmail until I get a permanent link in the fall, but can someone warn me as to what types of problems running without a "real" hostname can cause (the comments in sysconfig and the installer both stress the importance of this value)? Also, is there any way to tell FreeBSD's network daemons *not* to perform a hostname lookup (i.e. just use the dynamic IP address instead)? Thanks a lot... Ernie Pistor