"Bad Host Name" Error Message

[polymorph at shaw.ca]

>I continually receive an error message about a bad host name. This is the 
>error message:
>
>Starting cron
>Local package initialization: printerDec 7 21:20:44 BeerStud at rcn
>lpd[438]: Get_local_host: hostname 'BeerStud at rcn.com' bad
>2004-12-07-21:20:44.236 Get_local_host: hostname 'BeerStud at rcn.com' 

>"BeerStud at rcn.com" is an email address, not a host name. Replace it
>something like "BeerStud.rcn.com" although you would be best using a
>domain name you owned rather than someone else's domain.

I had a problem similar to this. I know of one way to fix it and another potential way. First you can find out what your real host name is by using:
	
traceroute your.ip.address

that will output some information like this:

traceroute to your.ip.address (your.ip.address), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
 1  here.will.be.your.host.name (your.ip.address)  0.508 ms  0.547 ms  0.650 ms

As mentioned before, the host name will not have any "@". This will be your real host name assigned by your ISP and is what you should use unless you have some reason not to. 

Second you could probably use the /etc/hosts file to map any name to your current ip address. I have not done this so I am just guessing on this point. It is likely far easier to use your real host name as described above.

Conan