Client "computer" / netbios name standards. What do you all use?

[Digitalcandy]

I'm curious to find out what do you all use for naming your client workstations?

Currently I am using C-%username%. The "C" tells me the account is a compute followed by the user's name using the computer. Of course everytime I have a new employee that takes the computer of an old one, I have to change the computer name to match the person using it.

I get the feeling this is not best practice but I have only 75 client workstations at my company. ~65 are WinXP and the other 10 are Win98.

 

[minxca]

I used to give the user computer name like %firstname%-%initial lastname%. This is good because I don't need to do nbtstat -a ip add to see who is log in. but since a lot of people now move/quit and we use a lot of Thin client, I change the pc name according their dept ex: ar-01, ap-02 etc, so I don't need to call Microsoft Clearing House to update my TS license

 

[JillofAllTrades]

I just use the Dell service tag. They are unique and I will need that anyway if I need to get hardware support.

Also, I put the user's name as the Description, so I can tell at a glance who has that PC.

Of course, I do change the Description if I redeploy the PC. This is manageable since I only have about 50 PC's.

Christine

 

[pjcarmen]

We also used to use as machine names. After a while the names became out of date, and rather confusing. Our latest statndard is to set the machine name with the letter "S" followed by it's serial number. So perhaps S001234567. It works pretty well in our situation and I don't have to change the machine name if the user moves or leaves the agency.

-Paul

^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
~Paul~
TechMonkey

 

[w8in]

We label all computers with an asset number on a sticker and give the computer name the following structure :

<geographical location code><asset number><personnel code>

 

[krawz187]

We have an ongoing project to standardize our naming convention right now. Nothing solid...but I'm leaning towards something like:

D001-0604L

D/L = Notebook/Desktop

001 = Sequential numbering

0604 = Month/Year of purchase

L/P = Leased or Purchased

With something like this I'd really never have to change a computer name, even if the computer is re-assigned. It's also handy for HR to glance at the property tags to check inventory.

 

[mrdenny]

I've noticed that smaller shops will use the persons name for the machine name.

My last employeer was a large shot with 5000 employees. There we used a city code followed by the inventory number of the machine from the inventory bar code. Such as SAC-00001452. It wasn't very personal, but in a company with 5000 employees many of whom share desks it didn't really matter.

Denny

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

 

[JimPletcher]

The more information you put into a computer name, the more complex the system becomes.

For instance:
One place I worked had 2,000 PCs and assigned names based on department ownership. Legal1, Acct2, Adv9, Mfg12, HR26 etc. This soon became a problem, because the company was constantly reorganizing.

Another firm with 4,000 PCs spread across the United States simply used the PC assigned name (Dell Service tag, or whatever), and kept track of them with a simple asset-tracking database that included all of the good stuff that you need to know. Worked great!

For the small companies I work with (6-40 employees) I number the PCs (one through ten then 11 through whatever) and keep a spreadsheet similar to the database mentioned above for each client.

All this assumes no peer-to-peer file or printer sharing, which I try to ssteer clear of anyway.

 

[JimPletcher]

I should have added:

Small installations with a few PCs and no file server seem happiest with either users first name or location as a PC name. They seem to understand John, Mary, Reception, Lobby, Office, etc. Same goes for printer names. Office Color, and Upstairs LaserJet amke them quite happy.

Similarly, small companies with one server are content calling the server "Server".

The best server naming convention I've seen for large companies was Type (N=Novell, W=Windows, U=Unix), building number (001, 158, etc.)followed by a number indicating which server of its type at that location. For instance N114_01 was the first Novell server in Building 114. They treated a cluster of small buildings in the Headquarters campus as one building (HQ instead of builing numbers).

 

[weescotty]

As we use Windows exclusivelty I use username+computer make
e.g. jbloggsdell