Setting a persistent hostname on a Mac workstation that uses DHCP

Summary

This article provides instructions on setting a persistent hostname on a Mac that uses DHCP (for example one that is connected directly to a cable or DSL modem).

Setting a persistent hostname in such cases is required to ensure that Smoke can properly connect to the media storage.

Procedure

Perform the following tasks to set a permanent hostname:

1. Open System Preferences, click Sharing and take note of of the value in the Computer Name field.
    
2. Click Edit and uncheck the "Use dynamic global hostname" checkbox.
    
3. Open the Terminal from the Applications / Utilities folder and look at the value of the prompt (highlighted in the image below).
   Ensure the name is the same as the one in the Computer Name field in step 1.
    
   Note: it is ok for the name in the Terminal to be lower-case and without any spaces, apostrophes or other special characters.
    
4. If the value is not the same, type the following command to set the hostname.
   sudo scutil --set HostName <new hostname>
    
   Replace <new hostname> with the same name as in the Computer Name field, but without any spaces or apostrophes.
    
5. Enter your password when prompted.
    
6. Reboot.