rfc1178.txt

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RFC 1178                   Name Your Computer                August 1990


      Don't use antagonistic or otherwise embarrassing names.

         Words like "moron" or "twit" are good names if no one else is
         going to see them.  But if you ever give someone a demo on your
         machine, you may find that they are distracted by seeing a
         nasty word on your screen.  (Maybe their spouse called them
         that this morning.)  Why bother taking the chance that they
         will be turned off by something completely irrelevant to your
         demo.

      Don't use digits at the beginning of the name.

         Many programs accept a numerical internet address as well as a
         name.  Unfortunately, some programs do not correctly
         distinguish between the two and may be fooled, for example, by
         a string beginning with a decimal digit.

         Names consisting entirely of hexadecimal digits, such as
         "beef", are also problematic, since they can be interpreted
         entirely as hexadecimal numbers as well as alphabetic strings.

      Don't use non-alphanumeric characters in a name.

         Your own computer may handle punctuation or control characters
         in a name, but most others do not.  If you ever expect to
         connect your computer to a heterogeneous network, you can count
         on a variety of interpretations of non-alphanumeric characters
         in names.  Network conventions on this are surprisingly
         nonstandard.

      Don't expect case to be preserved.

         Upper and lowercase characters look the same to a great deal of
         internet software, often under the assumption that it is doing
         you a favor.  It may seem appropriate to capitalize a name the
         same way you might do it in English, but convention dictates
         that computer names appear all lowercase.  (And it saves
         holding down the shift key.)

   Now that we've heard what not to do, here are some suggestions on
   names that work well.

      Use words/names that are rarely used.

         While a word like "typical" or "up" (see above) isn't computer
         jargon, it is just too likely to arise in discussion and throw
         off one's concentration while determining the correct referent.
         Instead, use words like "lurch" or "squire" which are unlikely



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RFC 1178                   Name Your Computer                August 1990


         to cause any confusion.

         You might feel it is safe to use the name "jose" just because
         no one is named that in your group, but you will have a problem
         if you should happen to hire Jose.  A name like "sphinx" will
         be less likely to conflict with new hires.

      Use theme names.

         Naming groups of machines in a common way is very popular, and
         enhances communality while displaying depth of knowledge as
         well as imagination.  A simple example is to use colors, such
         as "red" and "blue".  Personality can be injected by choices
         such as "aqua" and "crimson".

         Certain sets are finite, such as the seven dwarfs.  When you
         order your first seven computers, keep in mind that you will
         probably get more next year.  Colors will never run out.

         Some more suggestions are: mythical places (e.g., Midgard,
         Styx, Paradise), mythical people (e.g., Procne, Tereus, Zeus),
         killers (e.g., Cain, Burr, Boleyn), babies (e.g., colt, puppy,
         tadpole, elver), collectives (e.g., passel, plague, bevy,
         covey), elements (e.g., helium, argon, zinc), flowers (e.g.,
         tulip, peony, lilac, arbutus).  Get the idea?

      Use real words.

         Random strings are inappropriate for the same reason that they
         are so useful for passwords.  They are hard to remember.  Use
         real words.

      Don't worry about reusing someone else's hostname.

         Extremely well-known hostnames such as "sri-nic" and "uunet"
         should be avoided since they are understood in conversation as
         absolute addresses even without a domain.  In all other cases,
         the local domain is assumed to qualify single-part hostnames.
         This is similar to the way phone numbers are qualified by an
         area code when dialed from another area.

         In other words, if you have choosen a reasonable name, you do
         not have to worry that it has already been used in another
         domain.  The number of hosts in a bottom-level domain is small,
         so it shouldn't be hard to pick a name unique only to that
         domain.





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RFC 1178                   Name Your Computer                August 1990


      There is always room for an exception.

         I don't think any explanation is needed here.  However, let me
         add that if you later decide to change a name (to something
         sensible like you should have chosen in the first place), you
         are going to be amazed at the amount of pain awaiting you.  No
         matter how easy the manuals suggest it is to change a name, you
         will find that lots of obscure software has rapidly accumulated
         which refers to that computer using that now-ugly name.  It all
         has to be found and changed.  People mailing to you from other
         sites have to be told.  And you will have to remember that
         names on old backup media labels correspond to different names.

         I could go on but it would be easier just to forget this
         guideline exists.

Conclusion

   Most people don't have the opportunity to name more than one or two
   computers, while site administrators name large numbers of them.  By
   choosing a name wisely, both user and administrator will have an
   easier time of remembering, discussing and typing the names of their
   computers.

   I have tried to formalize useful guidelines for naming computers,
   along with plenty of examples to make my points obvious.  Having been
   both a user and site administrator, many of these anecdotes come from
   real experiences which I have no desire to relive.  Hopefully, you
   will avoid all of the pitfalls I have discussed by choosing your
   computer's name wisely.

Credits

   Thanks to the following people for suggesting some of these
   guidelines and participating in numerous discussions on computer
   naming: Ed Barkmeyer, Peter Brown, Chuck Hedrick, Ken Manheimer, and
   Scott Paisley.

   This essay first appeared in the Communications of the ACM, November,
   1989, along with a Gary Larson cartoon reprinted with permission of
   United Press Syndicate.  The text is not subject to copyright, since
   it is work of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
   However, the author, CACM, and NIST request that this credit appear
   with the article whenever it is reprinted.







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RFC 1178                   Name Your Computer                August 1990


References

   [1]  Libes, D., "Choosing a Name for Your Computer", Communications
   of the ACM, Vol. 32, No. 11, Pg. 1289, November 1989.

   [2]  Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities",
   RFC 1034, USC/Information Sciences Institute, November 1987.

Security Considerations

   Security issues are not discussed in this memo.

Author's Address

   Don Libes
   Integrated Systems Group
   National Institute of Standards and Technology
   Gaithersburg, MD 20899

   Phone: [phone]

   EMail:  [e-mail]





























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