In article <0b2e5b8e4f.JCCArc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
J C Conner <jcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > I gather some people swear by them but other swear at them!
> Glad someone else said that - I was keeping quiet as I just use the
> old 'paper and pencil' trick!
The point of them is that you can use 'meaningful' names for your machines
instead of numbers.
They act as a mini-local-DNS-lookup.
Mine had names such as 'Iyonix', 'Downstairs' (that was the A7000 in the
morning room which did the CLID and had copies of bank statements on it,
recipes, and the large-print timer), 'SARPC', 'RPC1', 'PC1' 'Thinkpad'
etcetera.
If you have a working network, updating them all from one m/c is not
difficult, and having names instead of numbers is a great advantage when
VNC-ing. They don't all have to be connected at the same time
My hosts file also had an extra descriptor as a comment (after a hash) such
as 'Ex ...' - the name of the donor of various clapped-out PCs.
Thus it was a proper list - and available on all the computers! Much safer
than 'paper and pencil'!
John
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