Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (3863 mails)

["Paul W. Abrahams" <abrahams@xxxxxxx>]

On Saturday 31 January 2004 4:43 am, John Andersen wrote:
> On Friday 30 January 2004 19:25, James Knott wrote:
> > > How can you set up a server with a Comcast account if your IP address is
> > > not static and therefore subject to change without notice?
> >
> > While I have dhcp, the assigned address stays the same for so long, it
> > might as well be static.  Also, while my address may change, my host
> > name won't, as it's based on my mac address.  So any host name look up
> > will return the correct ip.
> 
> Say what?
> 
> Maybe in your own (windows) network but not from outside.

There seems to be a major misunderstanding here.  As a general rule, there is 
no relationship between a hostname and the MAC address of the ethernet card 
on the computer having that hostname.   However, Comcast has created an 
exception to that rule because they (AT&T Broadband, actually) know the MAC 
address of each computer on their net and assign to that computer a hostname 
derived from that MAC address.    In particular, James, knowing the MAC 
address of his computer and being a Comcast customer, can address his 
computer by a fixed hostname, namely, the one derived from that MAC address.

Paul Abrahams