Symptom
- You experience difficulty connecting to the server with the Server Admin application.
- Clients experience difficulty connecting to other services.
Solution
The hostname may be incorrect. This can happen if:
- An incorrect hostname was entered in the Setup Assistant.
- The current DNS entry and hostname for your server no longer correspond to the hostname originally entered in Setup Assistant.
What is the hostname?
The hostname is the DNS subdomain name of your server.
Example URL:
This example URL shows a fully qualified domain name. The hostname would be only the subdomain, which would be:
Steps to correct
Follow these steps to correct the hostname:
1. Choose Log Out from the Apple Menu.
2. Log in as root.
Note: If you need information on the root user or experience any issue logging in as root, see the related technical documents listed below.
3. Open TextEdit.
4. Choose Open from the File menu.
5. In the Go To field type: /etc/
6. Press Return.
7. From the list that appears, select the file named hostconfig and click Open.
Important: Several other files have similar names. Be sure to choose only the exact match.
8. Find the line: HOSTNAME=mywrongname
9. Correct this line to read: HOSTNAME=mycorrectname
Note: mywrongname and mycorrectname are examples. Type your actual hostname where mycorrectname appears in this example. Be sure not to make any other changes to the file.
10. Choose Save from the File menu.
11. Restart the computer.
Related Information
Technical document 106290:
"
Mac OS X 10.0: About the root User and How to Enable It"
Technical document 106361:
"
Mac OS X 10.0, Mac OS X Server 10.0: Password Does Not Work as Expected After a Change"