I still haven't quite figured this out. When I'm setting up a Debian machine and it wants the "name to identify computer to network" and "host name" what am I supposed to give it? I'm working at a university and everything is under:

gsu.edu

but my department has a range of names that look like:

blah.cs.gsu.edu
blah2.cs.gsu.edu
blah3.cs.gsu.edu

and a couple of old things named:

blah.rr.gsu.edu
blah2.rr.gsu.edu

...and so on. If my new machine is going to use an IP with domain blarg.cs.gsu.edu

...what settings would I assign? Does anyone know what happens if I get it wrong? In other words, how are these entries actually used?

name it whatever you want, unless your uni netadmins tell you otherwise. Name of "blarg" and domain of "cs.gsu.edu" if I get you. If you get it wrong, nothing happens. Have you been assigned an IP and hostname already?

Ok. The only thing I noticed is that it affects emails sent internally. If I'm trying to send an external mail to blarg.cs.gsu.edu and the server I'm sending from is incorrectly given that same name, then it will think it needs to send to itself and won't bother to check the internet to see where that address points.

I guess it won't be that big a deal.