Editing Introduction to a Self Managed Life: a 13 hour & 28 minute presentation by FUTO software (section)

== Identifying Devices on Your Network ==

Let’s take a quick break to discuss the importance of '''static mappings''', '''hostnames,''' and the '''DNS resolver.'''

What you type into the <code>hostname</code> field when setting the '''DHCP static mapping''' in '''DHCP server settings''' is what you can use to connect to the device instead of the IP address. For instance, if you set the hostname to <code>happycloud</code>, instead of having to type <code>192.168.5.2</code> to connect to this device, you can type <code>happycloud.home.arpa</code>.

By default, on pfSense installations, the '''default domain''' is <code>home.arpa</code>. When you combine the <code>hostname</code> of <code>happycloud</code> with the <code>domain</code> of <code>home.arpa</code>, you get <code>happycloud.home.arpa</code>.

This is more convenient for connecting to devices because it is easier to remember <code>happycloud</code> than it is to remember <code>192.168.5.2</code> for sane people, who reserve their brains for useful data rather than [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0DF-MOkotA&t=874s useless macbook trivia]. Further, similar to dynamic DNS, if you change the IP address of this server later, all of your services &amp; bookmarks that point to this server do not have to be changed!

'''You can name your servers however you want! You can choose IP addresses for your servers however you want! I will be using the same IP addresses &amp; hostnames/domains throughout this guide so it is easy to follow, but you don’t HAVE to follow mine!'''

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