I don't know if this belongs here or the networking forum. edit: ugh, I'm an idiot. I could have swore I clicked on the Linux forum. Please move. The relevant parts of my network are a TP-Link Archer ...

I've noticed that in both Mandrake and Redhat, I don't ever need to configure my hostname in fresh installs, instead it gets configured automagically (I would assume using DHCP) by my cable ISP ...