I have gotten to the part of the openSUSE 10.2 installation where it asks for a Hostname and a domain name. I do not know what this means or how to set up these options. In past versions of SuSE, I don't remember even seeing this screen:

Hostname ______
Domain name ______
Change Hostname via DHCP (checked/unchecked) (default value is unchecked)
Write Hostname to /etc/hosts (checked/unchecked) (default value is checked)

In other distributions that I have installed, such as Debian, at the suggestion of people on this board, I have just given a random name for the Hostname and left the domain name blank. However, on this distribution it won't let me proceed if I leave the domain name blank. openSUSE is asking for a name that "consists of components separated by dots."

I don't think this computer is ever setup as a server. It is a laptop that I carry around, so it is often connected to different internet connections, sometimes with wifi, sometimes with ethernet, sometimes with dial-up.

The hostname is the name of the computer and the domain is the name of the network (workgroup in Windowsa speak)

Suse assumes you are going to connect to a network. You can put pretty much anything you like. A have a small home networkso I gave it a domain name and each computer has a name.

Try MyComputer for hostname and home for domain

If you plan on using Samba to share and use files from other Windows or Linux computers running Samba, DO NOT USE the same name you gave your computer in the Linux network section as you give your computer in the Samba setup. Very strange problems will result as your computer has a dual personality between Linux and Samba and they both should not use the same names for your computer and workgroup.

Thank You,