NC

Note: I’ve since come up with something much better, which dynamically generates the content. You can see it in the post: Debian/Ubuntu: Dynamic MOTD.

Configuring a “Welcome Banner” is a great way to notify your users about the machine they are about to login to. I personally use this to inform the user of the IP, Hostname, OS version and someone to contact.

Edit the file under “/etc/motd”.

Change this to something informative such as the below:

========================================
=         Welcome to Hitchcock         =
=  IP: 10.10.10.10                     =
=  Hostname: hitchcock.example.com     =
=  OS: Debian 5.01/Lenny               =
========================================

Just a short one this, but useful to know.