On Oct 5, 2012, at 9:23 AM, richardsan wrote: > why would the OS in a pop up window tell me that the computer's local > hostname (name___.local)is already in use on this network. and that the name > has been changed to a new one?
That's a Bonjour/Zeroconf thing and it means just what it says, that another computer has claimed the 'computer_name.local' name. You can see what the local name is in the Sharing control panel on a Mac (dunno where it would be on a PC running zeroconf) Open the Sharing control panel and you'll see something like: "Computers on your local network can access your computer at: DBDEV2.local" There is one positively known and one theoretical way of doing this (theoretical because I cannot test it right now): 1) Two macs with the same initial user name have been plugged into the same local network. I am positive you will see this error this way because I've seen it myself a number of times. By default, OS X names a computer with the name of the first user created (set during the initial setup or a complete re-install of the OS) For example we create a local user on all the macs that come through our office 'Mr. Helpdesk', since our users log on with their domain credentials, mostly, and you cannot create a network user as the first user created. So those computers all end up with a local name mr-helpdesks-imac.local or some such, and we have to change them (if we remember; Bonjour isn't very useful in our environment) 2) You've connected the same Mac to the local network with two different network interfaces. Like connecting via wifi and ethernet at the same time. This is the one I cannot test, since our wifi and ethernet networks are separate, but most home networks, for example, are not. I'm not positive this would happen. I'm not entirely hep to the intricacies of how zeroconf works, so I don't know if there's some way a computer name could hang around after it's been disconnected from the network. I'm pretty sure it all works by lan broadcasts when a computer comes online: "Hey does anybody have this name and IP address?" but I could be wrong. -- Bruce Johnson University of Arizona College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "StrataList-OT" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/stratalist-ot?hl=en.
