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Mac keeps changing its name

Pagemakers

Pagemakers

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Mar 28, 2008
2,952
1,227
Manchester UK
My Mac keeps renaming itself by adding a (2) to the sharing name.

I have 3 Macs on on a network (no Windows) and this happens after the Macs wake from sleep.

Each Mac has a unique name and each time I take off the (2) or whatever number it has added to the name, it happens again randomly later.

I think part of the problem is each Mac connects to the network via Ethernet and wifi.

I need Ethernet for speed, but Apple's "Find my Mac" feature only works with wifi so I need that on too.

Any ideas if there is a workaround for this? I've trawled the forums for days and can't seem to find any answers.
 
Eh, I'm up to number 8 or 9. I don't worry too much about it.

I'll be watching this thread though to see if there's a quick and easy fix.
 
This happens because of Apple Wake On Lan setup. If you go into the Energy Saver pref pane and uncheck "Wake for network access" it should stop.
 
NathanMuir: The number changes causes problem on the network, plus the fact that I have to cancel a popup window after wake.

Intell: Sometimes I need wake on wan if I have to connect back to my machine when I’m away from home. I have 2 different wifi networks in the house. Do you think if I connect to the other wifi network that is not part of the Ethernet network would fix the problem?
 
I'm not sure. You could make a script that runs every time the Mac is woken up or restarted that resets the hostname.
 
The order of the connections in the Network pref pane will determine what gets used to send stuff.

But why have wifi on? do you keep losing your macs within the office? put that MBA in a drawer and forget where :p
 
robgendreau I only have wifi on for Apple’s “Find My Mac” feature to work. With wifi off, your Mac cannot be located.
 
Pagemakers said:
robgendreau I only have wifi on for Apple’s “Find My Mac” feature to work. With wifi off, your Mac cannot be located.
Click to expand...

That's what I'm asking; why do you need to locate it if you know it's at the end of an ethernet cable? If you're doing for theft protection, you don't need wifi on all the time. As soon as someone turns it on and enables wifi it will become visible to iCloud.
 
Oh yea!! Never thought of that :)

I guess they could just turn find my mac off too - so thinking about it, it’s not much of an anti-theft device!
 
Hmmmm

Turned wifi off. Put my machine to sleep and woke it up...

The name of your computer “‫Paul Mac Pro‎‬” is already in use on this network. The name has been changed to “‫Paul Mac Pro (2)‎‬”.
 
I have rebooted the router as well as doing all of your other suggestions and so far it’s behaving itself…

thanks guys.
 
I'm wondering if you have a DHCP release / renew conflict, running both Cat5 AND 802.11 at the same time. Maybe one is beating the other to the punch for the DHCP renew - causing a "sorry, this spot's taken" reply from your router?

Are both the hardline and WIFI static IPs, or just one? I had a similar issue (though not with the same OS, mind you) and I got around it by decreasing the release / renew time from 24 hours, and by moving the static IPs higher up the chain. (from 192.168.1.101 to 192.168.1.150 - so other devices would not get near the fixed IPs)

What part of that actually resolved this - I'm not sure, but it did help. (in my case, I was running an open network for media server with no WAN access, then a secure one that did)
 
I turned wifi off and only used Ethernet and rebooted the router.

Today, it’s been fine, but who knows if it’s really fixed.

Each machine has it own IP.

DHCP is set by my Virgin SuperHub and then routed to an APE. Release time was increased from an hour to a week.
 
Big-TDI-Guy said:
I'm wondering if you have a DHCP release / renew conflict, running both Cat5 AND 802.11 at the same time. Maybe one is beating the other to the punch for the DHCP renew - causing a "sorry, this spot's taken" reply from your router?

Are both the hardline and WIFI static IPs, or just one? I had a similar issue (though not with the same OS, mind you) and I got around it by decreasing the release / renew time from 24 hours, and by moving the static IPs higher up the chain. (from 192.168.1.101 to 192.168.1.150 - so other devices would not get near the fixed IPs)

What part of that actually resolved this - I'm not sure, but it did help. (in my case, I was running an open network for media server with no WAN access, then a secure one that did)
Click to expand...

Oh you mean do I have the wifi and Ethernet on dedicated IPs on each machine. No I don't but that's a great idea that I'll try in the morning. Thanks.
 
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