I am setting up samba, and I can put in a netbios name, however, how do I know what the computer name is for my Linux box? Is that what I need to fill in the parameter netbios name?

Is there such a thing as a computer name for Linux?

Thanks for the help.

This is the netbios name for samba

It will let windows know who it is, that's what it's for.

Make it whatever you like.

Thanks david. I also found a 'hostname' command. This will obviously change the hostname of the linux box. Since you said I can make the netbios name anything I want, I then believe that netbios name does not need to be the same as the hostname, correct?

Where does the "hostname" of a linux box come into play?

On the internet the hostname is used. Mine is required to allow my linux box to route through my cable modem service. If the hostname is not the one they gave me it will not work, same as a windows machine if I were to use it.

There is also be a dhcp_hostname for use with a dhcp server to get your address if you need to do that.


The netbios name is used by microsoft network to resolve networking based on a name instead of an ip address. Therefore you can have your dns suffix or workgroup / domain setup and the netbios name will show up in the network neighborhood under that workgroup name. Microsoft has also incorporated some magic tricks in there to browse other workgroups outside of your own, so they have the entire network browser.

This is not used on the internet unless you use VPN which can be done but may be risky.