Hostname to use and which dist?

[toolish]

Hi howto'ers,

Firstly thanks for passing on your knowledge in these guides.

I have a couple of questions if any one has some time.

I followed the howto for a perfect Fedora core 4 install with ispconfig. All went well and i'm left with a nice system. With the hostname part I didn't have a registered domain spare at the time so I made up mars.servery.com. Then I noticed that the system is trying to send mail to root@servery.com... not too good.
So my question is two parts,what should I use as the hostname if I don't have a registered domain?
Also I read on aboutdebian.com that you shouldn't use your domain as the hostname because it is a security risk. Therefore if I register a domain,for example mydomain.com,what should I set the hostname to? I do intend it to be publically available in a non production sense once the domain is registered.
One last question if I may,which Fedora dist is best for this job, the latest 6 or is better to stick with 4?

Thanks for anyones help. I am grateful.

[torusturtle]

maybe it helps if you set the hostname to 'localhost'

[toolish]

Thanks very much for your help. It seems obvious now that you say it.

So if I setup a domain name with a dynamic dns service I would set the hostname to servername.mydomain.com?

Please excuse the obvious questions!
Thanks again

[falko]

Originally Posted by toolish

So if I setup a domain name with a dynamic dns service I would set the hostname to servername.mydomain.com?

Yes, but servername.mydomain.com should exist in DNS. Also, it's good to use a "technical" domain for hostnames, i.e. a domain that you don't use for web hosting, email, etc. That's how I do it on my servers. Never had problems with this.

One last question if I may,which Fedora dist is best for this job, the latest 6 or is better to stick with 4?

I'd go with 6 as 4 is pretty old now and I don't know until when updates will be available.

[toolish]

Many thanks Falko, it is appreciated. Thanks for your howto's too.

Do you still get the benefits of choosing a 'technical' domain for your hostname if you are using a dynamic dns service and your webhosting domain and 'technical' domain resolve to the same ip address?
Or is the idea to have them on 2 different public ip addresses?

Thank you...it's all clicking into place!

[falko]

Originally Posted by toolish

Do you still get the benefits of choosing a 'technical' domain for your hostname if you are using a dynamic dns service and your webhosting domain and 'technical' domain resolve to the same ip address?

Yes.

Originally Posted by toolish

Or is the idea to have them on 2 different public ip addresses?

It doesn't matter.

[toolish]

Thanks Falko!

All sorted now. Your advice was very helpful