VDQ : machine names??

I know it's a Very Dumb Question; I just can't find a general answer that works. I want to stop calling all the machines on my LAN localhost.localdomain, and give them distinctive names. I have found two or three ways of doing so; but they don't stick. The only way that really works, for me at least, is to think of it (and be ready) while doing a fresh install. When anaconda asks me whether to use dhcp, I can click on manual, type in a name, click back to using dhcp, and that name lasts. I'm not even sure now whether it's mere logging out and back in, or just actual reboots that do it, but in a location subject to longer power failures than the UPSs I can afford will ride out, I get enough reboots, too (alas!). One other way that I've tried is to use system-config-network, and edit the configuration of eth0; but that seems to be little more than a pacifier. I want something that shows up in the prompts, and that I can use in ssh and scp, without having to look up IP numbers on the router all the time -- especially since not all LAN machines are on one floor. Clue, please? Pretty please? -- Beartooth Staffwright, PhD, Neo-Redneck Linux Convert Fedora 8 & 9; Alpine 1.10, Pan 0.132; Privoxy 3.0.6; Dillo 0.8.6, Galeon 2, Epiphany 2, Opera 9, Firefox 2 & 3 Remember I know precious little of what I am talking about.