Giving Mac Mini a network name

I have noticed that typically a machine name appears which is the name of the person registering the machine. This same name also appears in a network list. I would like to know how to change this name and also, what are the consequences of this name change?

Hi, no idea why this just showed up as posted 6 days ago, didn't show a couple of hours ago!???
Are you still having the Problem?
What is the other name it shows up as?

Similar Messages

Mac mini server networking and DNS setup help

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with this. I'm working at a small business where I'm the only guy with any IT experience at all, but I'm new to Macs and OS X (<1 year) and being a server admin so please bear with me.
We just bought a Mac mini server as we are expanding from a bunch of workstations and Google Docs. I've just gone through the installation process, but nothing else is on the server, no user data at all, so if the answer is to reinstall from scratch, I can do it.
We'd like the mini to be a file server, print server as well as the gateway for the internet. I realize we could stick to our router and have the server as another node in the network, but we also got a Time Capsule for backing up the server and will locate it in another room to be another wireless access point there.
When going through Server Assistant, I didn't really know what to name the machine so I used corp-Server.local for the Current Hostname and corpserver.private for the DNS Hostname (though i actually use a 3-letter company acronym instead of "corp").
However, i realized after setup we'd want to access the server externally by name, so I changed the DNS hostname to server.companyname.com in the Zones tab of the DNS section of Server Admin (edited primary zone name, changed Nameservers entry for both primary and reverse zone).
I don't know what else I need to do though because there are loads of instances where corpserver.private still shows up, like in the Open Directory section of Server Admin (which btw always hangs when I open it) and the Contact Info of users (eg. user email is [email protected]). I also had trouble earlier using Server Preferences and Server Admin either not connecting or not recognizing my login, but that seems to have abated.
I guess my problem is, where else do I change the DNS hostname? Or do I have to change the DNS hostname back to corpserver.private (in Server Admin)? That way, I think at least everything will be consistent, but would I be able to still configure it somehow so that externally, we could access the server by the server.companyname.com URL?
Also, can the mini be a wireless router for the office? As mentioned before, we want to cut the existing wireless router out and use the mini instead (and use the Time Capsule as a wireless bridge).

So the ISP<->router connection can have a dynamic IP address, but the router<->server one should be static? I guess that means I have to set the IP address in the router. I hope I can get access to it. I don't suppose it matters which one I set first?
An IP router does not assign addresses.
A DHCP server does assign IP addresses upon receipt of a DHCP request from a client.
Some routers (and many firewall routers) do include a DHCP server.
A box with a static IP address does not need to send a DHCP request; it has a static address.
You'll need to ensure that the IP address pool within the DHCP server does not overlap the addresses that are manually assigned to your local hosts; the static IP addresses on your LAN.
[Here is an overview of the pieces involved here, and some of the typical terminology|http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/275].
I hate to belabour the point, but I just want to clarify: in my setup where ISP<->router<->server<->clients, where the server is the only machine connected to the router, which one should be the local DNS server? The server, right? So if the DNS server is turned on in the router, I should turn it off? Or do I need both (ie. router for its LAN (to server), and server for its LAN (to clients))?
So to confirm, the configuration includes (probably) a modem, a router (firewall) and a router (Mac), and then the rest of the (local) show? That is not the simplest configuration, and it's Particularly given that Mac boxes make expensive and slow routers.
The usual configuration is ISP>firewall>LAN and the LAN is usually built from WiFi, wired connections and switches. Within one subnet (which is typical) any host inside your firewall is connected on the LAN, and can communicate (directly) with any other LAN client. The firewall is configured as the gateway; that's the default route for outbound connections.
One more thing that's bugging me: I still don't understand why I couldn't connect to the internet when I plugged in the Ethernet cable from server to router. Even if I was using DHCP to get a dynamically allocated IP, shouldn't it still have worked? I'm worried that I'm going to set up everything as it should be but the connection still won't work.
That's likely because you're trying to use the Mac as a router, and that takes specific configuration steps. It's easier to have ISP>firewall>LAN, and have the Mac OS X Server box and the rest of the stuff as peers on your LAN. If you really want to use the Mac as an IP router, look around for setting up static routes on Mac; there are postings around for that.
If your data is more valuable and your security preferences and requirements are higher, then you may want a firewall with a DMZ, and put your web-facing boxes over in the DMZ. If you're serving stuff to the web or a mail server or such, it's possible to get breached, and a breach means folks can potentially get further into your LAN. With a DMZ, they're somewhat more isolated from your LAN.

Mac Mini Mounting Network Drive problems.... weird

Okay 2 Mac minis. Older G4/1.33/512/40/Combo, 10.4.11 Not as old C2D/1.83/2gb/80/Combo. First one mounts SMB shares from a NAS store no problems.
2nd one (newer) does SOME of the shares and not others. Will see, connect, mount and place icon on desktop. As soon as I click th icon on desktop or side panel in finder, it clears screen, closes the windows that are that open. Other mounted shares it will open and use. Its the same ones each time that cause the problem.
Anyone no why? Have checkled all network settings on both machines and there both identical in evy way. Connecting using same user name and password.
Hellllpppppp

You could try reinstalling the OS?

WinXP to Mac - The Specified Network Name is No Longer Available

Hello,
I cannot figure out, for the life of me, why our WinXP machine won't connect to our Mac.
Mac: Powerbook G4 running OS X 10.4.7, WIndows File Sharing is active and an account is selected which will use Windows sharing.
PC: Windows XP Home Edition, SP2. A file share is active.
We're both using wireless connections via a D-Link DI-624 router. Both the Mac and PC are on the same workgroup and have different machine names. Both are on the same subnet.
The Mac can connect to Windows XP share directories and printers without a problem. The Windows XP machine can browse to the Mac's web page when the Personal Web Sharing on the Mac is active. The XP machine can even ping the Mac's address with no packet losses.
However, when the XP machine tries to connect to the Mac (via Map Network Drive or from the command line) using \\machine\share, we get the following error: "The Specified Network Name is No Longer Available". The Mac's machine name shows up when we do a search for computers, but gives us that same error when we double click on it. Furthermore, the printer name does not show up in the printer list, although the Mac's machine name does.
Any ideas? Any more information needed?
Thanks a lot. This problem is driving me insane. :/
Scott

I finally figured it out! It had to do with the smb.conf file and a missing file. Here's what happened (for people with future problems like this):
o Looked at the log.smbd file (in /var/log/samba) and saw errors about not being able to convert from CP0. Searched online and found (from http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2490054&#2490054) that I needed to change 'dos charset = 0' to 'CP850'...
o In Terminal, did a 'sudo pico /etc/smb.conf' and changed the line "dos charset = 0" to "dos charset = CP850"
o Still didn't work, and found from the log.smbd file that the convert msg was gone, but was replaced with a "Failed to open /private/var/db/samba/secrets.tdb" msg.
o I saw that the directory (at the ..../samba level) didn't exist, so, from Terminal, I used sudo to create the /private/var/db/samba directory (sudo mkdir /private/var/db/samba), and did a 'sudo touch secrets.tdb' to create the file, then 'sudo chown root:wheel secrets.tdb' to assign the correct user/group.
Used 'sharepoints' program to create shares and voila! It works great now!
To share my printer, I'm using bonjour, which is a free printer/etc. sharing program from Apple for those with OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and WinXP/2000/2003 machines (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/bonjour/).

Mac mini and networking

Hi. simple question. I have a mac mini bought last year, dual processors etc...
i want to set it up on a cable modem. My question is this, do I have to purchase a wireless router to connect my other notebooks to it or will the airport express wired into the mini work as the router? I am currently on my notebook (pc) on a shared network.

You could use the wireless (AirPort Extreme) capability of the Mac mini to wirelessly share the connection.
->System Preferences->Sharing->Internet->Ethernet to AirPort.
->System Preferences->Sharing->Sevices->Enable Personal Web Sharing
However you don't really have any configuration options. Your Windows PC will only be able to join if you don't use any wireless encryption.
An inexpensive wireless router will give you many more configuration options and allow you to use wireless encryption.

Brand New Mac Mini drops network after a few minutes

My new Mac Mini (Core Duo) arrived a couple of days back and I couldn't wait to set it up. The next thing I did was to download all the latest updates but the network connection kept dropping after a few minutes (seemingly randomly). This is the wired connection (not airport) and all other computers on the network are working fine.
I thought it might have been a problem with the updates site but now I'm trying to copy my data across the network from my old Windows XP PC (I want to switch) and the connection hangs again after a few minutes.
The only way to get the network back up is to reboot the system, then it works okay for a few more minutes. I've changed the Ethernet cable and the other PCs are working fine - it's just the Mac that has issues.
I wondered if the network card is faulty but does anyone have any other ideas?
I guess as this is only a few days old Apple might exchange it?
</Mark>
Mac Mini Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Hi John,
My ISP is PlusNet and there are 2 Windows XP PCs, a Windows 2003 Server, 2 Windows 2003 virtual servers, an HP printer, a DLink Wireless Access Point and a Linksys NSLU2 NAS box all working perfectly happily here - the Mac is the only machine that doesn't want to play.
The router only has a single Ethernet port so that's connected to a Netgear 10/100Mbps hub which the other devices use.
In addition it's all NATted so the ISP could only block my external IP address - they don't have access to the router config and in any case all the other devices are communicating with the Internet over the ADSL link with no problems so I think I can rule out the ISP doing anything nasty.
Thanks for the suggestion anyway.
So... here's the progress to date:
I spent two hours on the phone to Apple Support at national rate phone charges. I finally snapped when they asked me to check the firewall settings on my Windows PC (I pointed out that if there was a firewall issue then no data would copy - not several hundred megabytes before timing out). They suggested I took the Mac to an AppleCare centre for diagnosis to see if it could copy files from another Mac (so much for interoperability - they only care that it works with Macs).
I have confirmed that the problem exists on both static IP and DHCP configurations, and whether or not I set the duplex manually or automatically on the network connection. Interestingly it only occurs connected to a 100Mbps/half duplex hub (not a 10/half hub or a 100/full switch or a 100/full crossover cable) but as all the other devices are working fine I can rule out issues withe the hub.
So, now I have the Mac connected to a 100Mbps/full duplex switch, with no other devices connected. That switch has a link to the hub with the other devices connected and on to my ADSL router.
Everything seems to be working but obviously it's not an ideal situation as the Mac should work on the same Ethernet hub as everything else.
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. If anyone has any further ideas I'd love to hear from you.
Cheers, Mark

Help.   New Mac Mini, migration, networking

Hi All,
I had a 2009 Mac Mini that was networked over wifi with my three other computers. I just purchased a new 2011 Mac Mini to replace it.
I hooked the new mac mini up to a TV and it said it could not run setup assistant while connected to this TV so it automatically created a user called "administrator".
I then took it to the Genius bar.   I wanted to get this user called "administrator" deleted and to migrate my own user (called MacMiniAnna).   They did migrate my user information using migration assistant and they did delete the user called administrator however...
When I try to network to the new Mac Mini it is still called "administrator's Mac Mini"   I want it to be named "Anna's Mac Mini"
And even though I went to the Mac Mini and turn file sharing ON for my entire home folder and said that everyone could read and write, I am not able to network to this computer from the other computers.
You can see what the problem looks like here:
http://kuperberg.com/clients/NetworkProblem.png

I feel that I can fix this whole thing if I can get the mac mini back to the state it was when I opened the box.   And then start all over, migrate my old data without creating this "administrator" account first.     Does anyone know how to just get the Mac Mini back to the original out of the box state?

Adding new mac mini to network causing problems

Hello,
I have a small home network that has been working great, and just bought a mac mini for media purposes. Unfortunately, adding the mini has ruined my network performance, and I don't understand why.
Previous Setup:
- airport extreme (firmware 7.4.2)
- 2 macbook pros using wireless (leopard & snow leopard)
- airport express only used to make a printer accessible wirelessly (6.3, "join a wireless network")
- iPhone
that worked great, but one of the macbook pros was doing double duty as media and work computer. Also, there was no nice way to do time machine backups without physically plugging in a USB HD. I was using USB into airport extreme, but that is not supported and never worked well for me (though it seems to work for others).
So, I bought a mac mini in Oct' 2009 (immediately after small upgrades were announced).
New setup:
- airport extreme
- mac mini using ethernet cable to airport extreme (USB HD shared for macbook pros to do wireless time machine backups) mac mini running snow leopard
- 2 macbook pros as before
- airport express serving printer as before
- iPhone
Problems:
- very slow wireless (skype is unusable)
- dropping wireless connections a lot (disassociating with XXX (reserve 2) message)
I tried turning off everything for a few min and trying again with the mac mini unplugged (eg. previous setup). Everything worked great, Skype 2 way video was fine. Then I plugged in the mini, and again I have the same problems.
It's frustrating because everything is made by Apple, and I bought the **** mac mini partially because the airport extreme-USB HD solution (eg. mimicking a time capsule) is not officially supported.
It seems like there is some weird interference being caused by the mini. It's not a wireless issue (b/c it's plugged in), but maybe it's a DHCP problem.
Also, I can't find where one sets the maximum number of DHCP leases that the airport extreme will offer. I seem to remember that setting, and thought that might be the problem, but I can't find it now.

For those that might find this thread:
- moving the mini and the airport extreme about 18 inches apart helped some, will monitor this.
here's a couple useful articles about the interference issues in general:
http://www.macgeekery.com/hacks/hardware/optimizingairportconnectivity
http://www.macworld.com/article/60801/2007/11/dec07mobilemac.html
I can't turn off bluetooth b/c that's the mini's keyboard and mouse. I tried to move to the 5GHz band for the wireless... which seems to work pretty well for the macbook pros, but the airport express I have (for printing) won't support that so it's a no-go solution for now (unless I spend even more money for one of the new ones).
Seems odd that the mini and airport extreme which look like they were designed to be stacked on top of each other, actually don't work well that way.

Mac Mini Home Network

Hi,
i am looking to replace my windows based system with an Apple solution. I currently use a Seagate NAS device connected to my router. Very simple...
At present the system works but is unreliable and some features are limited.
I was thinking of a Mac Mini as the host device for the network to do the following:-
Connect 3 iphones
Connect 2 ipads
Connect 1 macbook pro
Connect two further laptops (Windows)
Store all my documents (word excel, pdf's etc)
Store my other half's documents
Host two or more iTunes libraries (i.e. mine and my partners plus children)
Have remote access through the internet
Be wireless at home
Run on SKY (UK) router (New model Hub). Sky do not allow any other routers on their network
I'm sure i can do it but not sure of the best equipment to acheive the best solution.
i.e. do i need server model of Mac OS, is the base Mac Mini OK, would we have our own logon id's to the Mini??? etc etc
Many thanks in advance
Dave

Yes, a Mini could do all that. And more.
It's been discussed here a few more times. Get the Mini you want, server or not. You can - if not included - get the Server later as a separate app via the App Store, and you will want the Server app.
I don't know the SKY router, but doubt it's Gigabit Ethernet? That might be a transfer speed issue. On the other hand, I wonder why it couldn't continue working as Internet router only while other network components were connected via a different router...

Mac Mini wont network with my other Macs

Hi all,
I have a 3Com 8port router(HUB)networking my Mac-Mini, 8600, G4 & Dell via DSL modem. After my DSL modem bit the dust I've noticed the computers wont communicate with each even though I can see their icons all on my network. Shouldn't they network even if the DSL modem is out? Or is the DSL modem needed to send out IP addresses to the CPUs in order to communicate? I'd like the CPUs to network instantly without the beach ball swirling for an hour...LOL
Thanks for your help
Web dude

Hi Web dude-
Take a look at this document:Mac OS X: Troubleshooting a cable modem, DSL, or LAN Internet connection. It should be helpful.
You are correct that the router part did assign ip addresses.
You can set up one of your Macs to share an Ethernet connection. See the document Creating a small Ethernet network for more information.
Luck-
-DaddyPaycheck

New Mac Mini Server Network Issue

I recently purchased the new Mac Mini Server with 10.6 to use as a Content Filter/Web Server for a small private school. While trying to set it up, using the on board ethernet and a USB to Ethernet adapter, I have lost all ability to acquire an IP. IT does not matter if I use the on board ethernet, the USB adapter, or the Airport. All three return a self-assigned IP. I know this is related to the machine since I can still access the cable modem setup by typing in 192.168.100.1. And I brought it home to work on it a little more and the bonjour services are detecting the other macs on the network.
I tried trashing my network preference plist, but no change.
I am considering doing a fresh install since I think the initial setup was borked. But I thought I'd hit up the board and see if anyone else had a thought before I begin that process.
thoughts?

I have setup this configuration several times with both a MacPro and the smaller mini setup. The gateway setup we are describing is about as simple as it gets (static IP, gateway running all services so 1 IP address, gateway set as 192.168.1.1 on the local net. Simple DHCP and DNS "server.local", and "server.xxx.com" external).
I would be overjoyed to find that I can configure this by setting up some simple overrides in the routing. I would point out in defense that _everything else_ works perfectly basically by default.
1) dns on server: local and external, forward and reverse from itself and the local network - check
2) services on server (all of them): from itself and the local and external networks - check
3) network access (ie NAT & Firewall) for local machines - check (web, streaming, even bittorrent)
The only issue I see is that remote clients cannot access the gateway itself properly though VPN. UPD return packets seem to be mis-routed through the physical interface rather than the virtual one.
ALL other operations (Mail, iCal, iChat, Push, Web Services, Wiki, Web Mail and iCal, NAT) work perfectly for the server, local network, and external hosts. The above problem only happens for vpn clients, and then only for connections from them to the gateway itself, and only for UDP packets.
I would really love to know how to fix it, especially if this can be explained by a needed custom rule (But I'm guessing not given the otherwise full functioning system). Are you saying that to make VPN work you need to add custom routing info that is not described in the Server docs? If so what?
Thanks,
Hunter

Mac Mini Wireless Networking Problems

I have a mac mini G4 since summer of 2005, when i first got it i could use it wireless with a new wireless router i bought with it ( ZyXEL P-335WT) with sercuity via Airport. later the connection would always disconnect and soon i could not connect with sercuity so i have turn it off now. Now the Airport connection has got wrost, once in a while i can connect to internet with it but now if i look in the settings it says connected to router but no ip address to connect to internet. So i change over and over again but nothing works, there is also a pop-up that says IP address in use when there isn't anything using it. Currently i have a pc, pocket pc, and a nokia n80 connected there. My Mac Mini came with Airport Card and it is still untouched. Can someone help me

Try turning off your router for at least 10-15 minutes. Then reapply power and now see if you can get a stable connection with your G4.
If you still get the popup that the IP address is already taken, then you may want to check your router's DHCP setting, specifically the range of private addresses that it is providing to the clients.
If your G4's provided IP address is in this range (it should be), and you still get the popup, then try setting your G4's IP address to an address outside of that range. For example, if your router is providing private addresses of 192.168.1.100 thru 192.168.1.150...set your G4 with a static IP address of 192.168.1.175. If this works, then there may be something amiss with your router.

How to add a computer to Mac Mini server network?

Hello,
Can anyone tell me how to add a Mac Air to the computers my Mac Mini server recognizes? Currently, I cannot share files between computers.
Thanks for any help!

Hmmm, not sure which end the problem is on, if you don't get an answer here you might post over here...
https://discussions.apple.com/community/servers_enterprise_software/mac_os_x_lio n_server

Adding computer to Mac Mini server network?

Hello,
Can anyone tell me how to add a Mac Air to the computers my Mac Mini server recognizes? Currently, I cannot share files between computers.
I have "All Users" checked under sys prefs >sharing.
Thanks for any help!

Hmmm, not sure which end the problem is on, if you don't get an answer here you might post over here...
https://discussions.apple.com/community/servers_enterprise_software/mac_os_x_lio n_server

Giving my phone a network name

My phone shows up on our wlan as unknown-3, all our other wlan connections show up with their names. How do I give my N97 a name that will display on the wlan?

If you go to System Preferences -> Sharing, what do you have listed as the "Computer Name:". I believe that should be the network name of the computer. HTH.
-NifflerX

Giving Mac Mini a network name

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