Last revision May 27, 2005
Your computer's network (or "host") name must be a single word with no spaces. Only alphabetic characters, numerals, and the hyphen (-) character may be used; the name must start with an alphabetic character.
The name you pick will have Stanford's official network domain (.stanford.edu) added to it when registered to create the one true name of this computer that is unique across the entire Internet. Be sure to use the same name for local networking functions such as Windows Networking in order to avoid confusion.
Short names are better because they are easier to remember. However, do not pick a very generic name, such as dataserver, that might be misconstrued to refer to a general function of the University. If you plan to have a server for hydrogeology data, for example, you could call it hydrogeoserver.
For PCs and Macintoshes, which are normally client systems only, use a name that relates to the location or owner, such as gp-mac1, or a name with no program connotation, but personal meaning, such as meadow.
You can check to see if a network name is available by entering it in the field below and clicking Check Host Name.
Although case (upper or lower) of the letters in the name is not supposed to matter, your official network name will be registered entirely in lowercase.