New on cable. Bash prompt name changed?

[Bill Polhemus]

> ron wrote:
>
>> After setting up my high speed cable account, my bash prompt changed.
>> How do I change it? Is the address:
>>
>> c-53-131-25-317.hsd1.fl.comcast.net
>>
>> my permanent "back" address? It does not seem to change.
>
> It seems you get your address by DHCP from Comcast, and their DHCP
> server instructs the DHCP client to change your hostname, the same way
> that it can set your client DNS server address to use for example.

For the life of me, I do not understand why anyone would hook their
computer up directly to the cable (or dsl) modem rather than through a NAT
router.