I have most of my hardware the way I want, but am trying to set each system up where I can reliably know which computer is which over my network. I can also find and ping each computer without issue.

I am connecting several computers and a couple cell phones. Each computer runs Porteus, which come from Slackware. A few hook in via a Cat5e, and a couple via WiFi. I expect the IPs to change occasionally due to rebooting and then having to hit DHCP again. Would the hostname be what I need to set here? ...and how would I set it permanently?

Once configured, I intend to start grabbing files off of each computer and syncing them between each machine, as well as to share internet.

Create a file /etc/hostname on each computer and put your desired hostname in there. It will then be set each time you boot. You probably want to add the other computers' hostnames to /etc/hosts as well.

The /etc/hosts file will only work if the devices have static IP addresses. This can be configured on each computer or you can through address reservation via your router's or DHCP server's configuration. Otherwise you need a local DNS service like dnsmasq.

If you transfer files via scp/sftp you still need to use static IP addresses but you can create something similar to a host file via the ~/.ssh/config file

So far, nothing.

I made me an /etc/hostname file, though I haven't found anything that tells me how to format it under Porteus. I gather it depends on the distro as to what defines the system name. There has to be something local setting the name or I'd expect to see a list of Sys1, Sys2, etc. and not porteus, porteus, etc.

It also doesn't help that I am rusty to Linux 2.2.24, and to Linux networking.

/etc/hostname file,

the name of the file is supposed to be hosts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file)


Ramble below.

There are generally 4 ways a computer looks up a resource. Generally it looks to hosts first but that can be set to use other lookups first.

Remember that hosts file can be an issue if you forget about it.

To get really wild you can make a static arp entry and then make a hosts no matter what your dhcp does but again that can really make an issue if you forget.

I've found and edited that file, but the reboot didn't make a difference.

As michaelk said already, best option would be to setup a central DHCP, DNS server. Optionally, you might want to setup ddns as well in the future.

Many home routers can set permanent IP leases.

You can make most of the systems static also.

When you set hosts and tried ping by name what happens?

Are you using some odd name or not a proper name?

On my system it's /etc/HOSTNAME (capital letters)