Given the following: scutil --get ComputerName // Dan's MacBook Pro scutil --get HostName // Dans-Macbook-Pro scutil --get LocalHostName // Dans-Macbook-Pro Why on earth, if I do a sudo tcpdump -c30 -vn -i en0 port 67 or port 68 and toggle WiFi to check DHCP requests, does macOS do:

➜  ~ sudo tcpdump -c30 -vn -i en0 port 67 or port 68
tcpdump: listening on en0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), snapshot length 524288 bytes
01:55:46.692745 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 255, id 61100, offset 0, flags [none], proto UDP (17), length 328)
    0.0.0.0.68 > 255.255.255.255.67: BOOTP/DHCP, Request from 3a:35:ca:31:4e:fc, length 300, xid 0x53a1e874, Flags [none]
	  Client-Ethernet-Address 3a:35:ca:31:4e:fc
	  Vendor-rfc1048 Extensions
	    Magic Cookie 0x63825363
	    DHCP-Message (53), length 1: Request
	    Parameter-Request (55), length 13: 
	      Subnet-Mask (1), Classless-Static-Route (121), Default-Gateway (3), Domain-Name-Server (6)
	      Domain-Name (15), Unknown (108), URL (114), Unknown (119)
	      Unknown (162), Unknown (252), LDAP (95), Netbios-Name-Server (44)
	      Netbios-Node (46)
	    MSZ (57), length 2: 1500
	    Client-ID (61), length 7: ether 3a:35:ca:31:4e:fc
	    Requested-IP (50), length 4: 192.168.50.24
	    Lease-Time (51), length 4: 7776000
	    **Hostname (12), length 3: "Mac"** <---- hostname "Mac" here

It looks like be default, if you run scutil --get HostName, you get:

HostName: not set

In the manual of scutil, it reads: > HostName The name associated with hostname(1) and > gethostname(3). Yet, while running scutil it reports the HostName is not set, simply running hostname reports correctly: > Dans-MacBook-Pro.local How come? Are hostname and scutil --get HostName not related after all? And should I have to worry about something? Do I need to set the HostName after all?

So I'm trying to edit my host files using sudo nano /etc/hosts so it can block some sites, but while I can edit and save it, no website is blocked. Here's a real head scratcher: when I block the same sites using https://selfcontrolapp.com/ , everything works. It's not the content of the file or the formatting - while SelfControl was running/working, I literally copied/pasted the modified Host File on Terminal and used it as my new Host file (I pasted it and everything is identical). Does anyone know what's going on? I've flushed the cache, did sudo chflags noschg /etc/hosts, changed 0.0.0.0 to 127.0.0.1, but nothing seems to work. I suspected it might be caused by https://github.com/2ndalpha/gasmask or https://switchhosts.vercel.app/ , but I already uninstalled them.

I am running macOS 14.5 on an M2 Macbook Air, and use ZSH for my shell environment with iTerm2. I have a guest staying with me (let's call him Ricardo), who only has an iPad here. When I opened up iTerm2 today on my macbook (after not having used iterm for about a month), I noted that my prompt, which usually would say myname@localhost now says myname@RicardomanasiPad instead. If I type echo $HOST, I get RicardomanasiPad.localdomain I can't fathom why my host would reflect someone else's name and iPad when they have had no access to my computer, and only have access to the WiFi network for internet access. Is this some strange Mac behaviour, or is something nefarious going on?

Hopefully I describe this in the way it can help me. Is it possible for me to host a drive live on a website of mine, in which users anywhere, (not just my network), can access to watch/listen/play and download stuff from? Similarly to Snap2HTML, the application takes a snapshot of a folder's structure, and pastes it on a HTML file you can use for a website. My desired result is just like this, but I can use it on MacOS systems, since Snap2HTML is Windows only. Being that, I did indeed test it on CrossOver, which it built the .html just fine, but I cannot redownload the files from where the .html was appointed to. Essentially, I want to host my own file hosting service, apart from anyone else uploading anything to the drive. Anyone who visits my site, can download those files I put into the drive, that looks like an Index of that drive, similarly to the Raspberry Pi OS' previous image UX. If anything of the similar is possible and available for Mac, please let me know. Thanks in advance!

today I logged into my mac and opened zsh and had a big shock! Normally my terminal prompt is something like: sidharthghoshal@macbook-pro But today I found it was : sidharthghoshal@HaeLims-Air I don't know what HaeLims-Air is and my first assumption is I had been hacked. Exploring a bit I came across this post: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/125411/how-do-i-stop-my-computer-name-from-automatically-and-incorrectly-changing/301258#301258 . Inspired by it I went to the terminal and ran print -P '%m' and it printed out HaeLims-Air so it my hostname %m has legitimately changed. Now when I check my system preferences and sharing the name of the macbook is still the same as it has ever been. It is Sidharth’s MacBook Pro which is what I thought it should be. So now I want to ask. How can I find out 1. which files actually contain the string HaeLims-Air that has changed. 2. When did this file change? I would like to understand exactly when that hostname in the zsh would have been modified. Since this is the first time in my entire life I have encountered this and still feel quite uneasy. In a weak attempt I tried to run grep -iR "HaeLim" . from the \etc folder but nothing came up. It is possible this is benign. I looked up my hostname history and indeed there I see that only MOST recently did the host name change:

sidharthghoshal@HaeLims-Air ~ % log show --style syslog --info --last 30d | grep 'setting hostname' 

2024-01-28 16:34:51.391348-0500  localhost configd: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] setting hostname to "Sidharths-MacBook-Pro.local"
2024-01-28 16:34:54.493552-0500  localhost configd: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] setting hostname to "Sidharths-MBP.lan"
2024-01-28 17:39:07.272782-0500  localhost configd: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] setting hostname to "Sidharths-MacBook-Pro.local"
2024-01-28 17:39:09.392589-0500  localhost configd: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] setting hostname to "Sidharths-MBP.lan"
2024-01-31 11:10:27.564345-0500  localhost configd: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] setting hostname to "Sidharths-MacBook-Pro.local"
2024-01-31 11:10:37.515435-0500  localhost configd: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] setting hostname to "Sidharths-MBP.lan"
1969-12-31 19:06:20.379707-0500  localhost configd: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] setting hostname to "Sidharths-MacBook-Pro.local"
2024-02-02 19:00:06.481011-0800  localhost configd: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] setting hostname to "Sidharths-MBP.attlocal.net"
2024-02-02 19:06:23.604979-0800  localhost configd: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] setting hostname to "Sidharths-MacBook-Pro.local"
2024-02-02 19:06:27.296765-0800  localhost configd: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] setting hostname to "Sidharths-MBP.attlocal.net"
1969-12-31 20:03:50.582148-0800  localhost configd: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] setting hostname to "Sidharths-MacBook-Pro.local"
2024-02-06 15:50:00.336584-0800  localhost configd: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] setting hostname to "Sidharths-MBP.attlocal.net"
1969-12-31 16:08:31.806416-0800  localhost configd: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] setting hostname to "Sidharths-MacBook-Pro.local"
2024-02-06 22:00:14.072212-0800  localhost configd: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] setting hostname to "HaeLims-Air"

I suspect that the February 06 entry given as

-02-06 22:00:14.072212-0800  localhost configd: [com.apple.SystemConfiguration:IPMonitor] setting hostname to "HaeLims-Air"

Actually comes from my Macbook not being turned on since February 06. And thus when it turned on, before the Macbook KNEW what the correct date was it already was attempting to set the hostname. This makes a lot of sense because until the Macbook connects to WIFI I do not believe it has any way of being aware of what the time is. In order to connet to WIFI it will get a hostname assigned.

When I open the file with TextEdit (I don't want (truly, I am not able) to use vim), it is seen as "locked", even if I modify the permissions of the file via the "Get Info" window. How can I modify the hosts file with TextEdit?

I am under the impression that there is no real way to protect the hosts file completely without creating a none-admin user account on my Mac and setting the password of the admin account to one that I won't remember. So therefore I would like to make editing of my hosts file *difficult* as a next-best alternative. I have read that it is possible to set a **system immutable flag** on specific files which would need to be disabled before the files are able to be edited. So of course it would still be possible to edit the hosts file, but it would at least make it a bit trickier. Is this a recommended approach? or is there a better way to achieve it?

I don't have permission to edit the hosts file, even if I use sudo and turn off SIP. I use sudo vim /etc/hosts to open the hosts file. After entering :wq!, it shows: "hosts" E212: Can't open file for writing like I am not using sudo. I also tried using sudo nano /etc/hosts and it said: [ Cannot open file for writing: Operation not permitted ] Then I try sudo chflags nouchg /etc/hosts, but it makes no change. BTW, inside the Finder, there is a lock in the lower-left corner of the hosts file. I try to change the lock status in **Get info** but the lock icon is not clickable.

For over 10 years I have been using the HOSTS file to block ads and other nasties on both macOS and Windows PCs. (Refer: https://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm) It has worked flawlessly, until the macOS upgrade to Monterey 12.1. The new behaviour was noticed on both my MacBook Pro (early 2015) and Mac mini (2018). With Firefox, ads continue to be blocked just as before. I can now only block ads in Safari (15.2) by using a content blocker e.g. Adblock Plus. It seems as though Safari on Monterey is ignoring the HOSTS file. I have tried restarts of Safari and the Mac and flushing the DNS cache, all to no avail. As a test I added www.nytimes.com to the hosts file. On Firefox, the site doesn't appear to exist. Safari opens it as per usual - so it is definitely ignoring HOSTS. Anyone else noticed this issue? Update: the issue only occurs when Hide IP address for Trackers and Websites is selected; it does not occur when Hide IP address for Trackers only is selected. My understanding is that browsers should never ignore HOSTS as they may be required for Intranet and other redirects/blocks.

I decided do jailbreak Iphone 6s ios 15.2 For my device, only the semi-tethered jailbreak from palera1n was suitable. After palera1n icon appeared, I decided change: /private/etc/hosts file using filza using Webdav. For convenience, I changed the file: master.passwd and set the password for the root user. The changes worked. Now I can connect both via WinSCP and via Putty. My problem that no matter what sites I put in the hosts file, they are not applied, that is, both Safari and Firefox continue to open them, ignoring the hosts file. Here is the hosts file: 127.0.0.1 localhost 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain 255.255.255.255 broadcasthost ::1 localhost 127.0.0.1 local ::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback 127.0.0.1 www.youtube.com ::1 www.youtube.com 127.0.0.1 m.youtube.com ::1 m.youtube.com 127.0.0.1 dzen.ru ::1 dzen.ru Judging by this hosts file, Youtube and Zen shouldn't open, but they continue work. What could be the problem? Thanks in advance for your reply.

This is the last line of my .zshrc:

export HOST="localhost"

How is this happening?

❯ source ~/.zshrc
❯ echo $HOST
x86_64-apple-darwin13.4.0

I'm using macOS Ventura 13.4.1. Before migrating to my current Mac desktop, I changed the name of its predecessor from "MyMac" to "MyMacOLD" and then did the migration from TimeMachine. The new Mac is named "MyMac". Yet when I use file sharing from this new "MyMac" to a MacBook and transfer files from "MyMac" to the MacBook using a file comparison/transfer app (namely, VisualDiffer), each time I try a comparison of corresponding folders on the two machines, I get a pop-up error "There was a problem connecting to the server "MyMacOLD". If I just dismiss that pop-up, it pops up again; dismissing it again now allows the comparison of folders, and subsequent syncing via the app, to proceed. The Mac's SystemSettings > General > About shows the name as "MyMac" The situation persists even after I used all the steps shown at https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Setting-the-Mac-hostname-or-computer-name-from-the-terminal.html that use the terminal command scutil to set the name to "MyMac" (without the quotes, of course), including the restart. **Question:** Where is that name "MyMacOLD" being picked up from, and how can I fix it to be what my Mac is supposed to be named, "MyMac"?

Ask for support! I plan to add some records into hosts file under /etc/hosts. but when I try to change the file, I got error. unable to write a readonly file. I even use the root account to try to change it, still failed. below is the file

sh-3.2# id
uid=0(root) gid=0(wheel) groups=0(wheel),1(daemon),2(kmem),3(sys),4(tty),5(operator),8(procview),9(procmod),12(everyone),20(staff),29(certusers),61(localaccounts),80(admin),703(com.apple.sharepoint.group.3),702(com.apple.sharepoint.group.2),33(_appstore),98(_lpadmin),100(_lpoperator),204(_developer),250(_analyticsusers),395(com.apple.access_ftp),398(com.apple.access_screensharing),399(com.apple.access_ssh),400(com.apple.access_remote_ae),701(com.apple.sharepoint.group.1)
sh-3.2# ls -l /etc/hosts
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  688 10 25 08:19 /etc/hosts
sh-3.2#

I try to change the permission of this file, still failed.

sh-3.2# chmod 777 hosts
chmod: Unable to change file mode on hosts: Operation not permitted

and after I disable SIP, still failed. However when I try to change other files in same folder(/etc), will work. only hosts file didn't work. anyone can help me? great thanks!

There are many webpages given over to listing defaults commands in order to configure various parts of the OS. Some of them include the flag -currentHost. The man page for the defaults command documents the option -currentHost, as *"restricting preferences operations to the host that the user is currently logged in on."* Similarly, the -host flag allows a hostname to be specified for the preference. What is the purpose of explicitly setting these flags? Under what circumstances would a preference affect some other host? (Or indeed, when would a user be logged in on a different host?)

I have an iPad that needs to be able to connect to a server via its short hostname, e.g. http://app instead of http://app.example.com . The network it connects to assigns it a domain name other than example.com so it doesn't work automatically. Is there a way to add a hosts entry (/etc/hosts) for that server in iOS, or add the appropriate domain name to the resolver search list without jailbreaking?

I've a Spring Boot application which uses an external service. I want to reproduce a scenario where that service is not reachable after my application is up and running. So, I thought I'll start my service and update the **/etc/hosts** entry to block the outgoing calls to that service. Somehow this is not working for my Mac. This is how the **URL** of that **external service** looks like:

pulsar+ssl://a943.chat.extservice.com:6951?preset=low_tp_no_read

And this is the entry of **/etc/hosts**:

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1       localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1             localhost

# Block external service calls
0.0.0.0         pulsar+ssl://a943.chat.extservice.com:6951?preset=low_tp_no_read
0.0.0.0         a943.chat.extservice.com
0.0.0.0         pulsar+ssl://a943.chat.extservice.com:6951
0.0.0.0         a943.chat.extservice.com:6951

I tried adding all possible combinations but this is not working. Even I blocked google.com, but still I was able to access it. Any suggestions or help would be really appreciated. Thanks!

I have the following lines in my /etc/hosts. Parallels Desktop keeps commenting lines which as it needs to connect to that domain. I tried changing access of /etc/hosts to 444 but it suddenly changed to 644. It seems like Parallels Desktop needs to edit /etc/hosts to define hosts on its local network. How can block access of Parallels Desktop from these domains without changing /etc/hosts?

I'm trying to block this website: www.blackhatworld.com using the host file. The lines I use are this one: 127.0.0.1 website.com www.website.com ::1 website.com www.website.com For some reason, this website keeps loading correctly in Safari. In Chrome and Firefox it does not load (as expected). I've tried to flush the DNS Cache & Restart the Mac, but no success so far. What could be the cause of the problem? I think it has to do with DNS record 65 (HTTPS) as stated in this thread: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65972371/why-does-etc-hosts-not-work-anymore-for-some-websites-on-big-sur P.S. all other websites that I have in my host file are being blocked correctly

My MacBook Pro (running BigSur 11.2.1) now - since I rebooted it last night - keeps showing the host name as 'HUAWEI_Y6_2019-{hhhhhhhhhh}' in the bash prompt. (The hh's are a 10-digit hex string.) The hostname command likewise reports this value. In System Preferences > Sharing, Computer Name still shows as 'macbook' (which is what the prompt used to say). I've tried editing that, then editing it back, and that fixed the prompt for new bash sessions - for a while. Now it has started doing it again. These are not remote bash sessions just bash shells on the local machine. Does anyone have any idea why this might be happening? Or where the value is coming from? As far as I'm aware there's no Huawei hardware on my home network (unless the 'BT' badged hub is really a Huawei box). UPDATE: I have reviewed https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/30552/os-x-computer-name-not-matching-what-shows-on-terminal but that seems to refer to a remote bash session. That is not the case here.