Set ESP32 Hostname using ESP-IDF

In this tutorial, we will show you how to set up ESP32 hostname using ESP-IDF. If you notice that the default hostname for an ESP32 module is “espressif”. You can check this name in your router’s DHCP client list. But if you are working on your product and you want to name the hostname according to your brand, you can set a custom hostname of ESP32.

A hostname is a human-readable name that is assigned to a device on a network. It can be used to identify the device and make it easier to connect to it over the network. The esp_netif_set_hostname() function sets the hostname for a network interface on the ESP32, ESP32-S2, or ESP32-C3 microcontroller.

The esp_netif_set_hostname() is a function in the ESP-IDF (Espressif IoT Development Framework) networking library that allows you to set the hostname of a network interface.

esp_netif_set_hostname(netif, HOSTNAME);

The function takes two arguments:

  • netif: A pointer to the network interface structure.
  • hostname: A null-terminated string that contains the hostname to set for the network interface.
  • The function returns an error code (ESP_OK if successful, otherwise an error code) indicating the success or failure of the operation.

Note: Wi-Fi interface should be initialized before calling tcpip_adapter_set_hostname, you need to initialize the default network interface using esp_netif_init(). If the network interface is not initialized, the function will return an error.

In the following tutorial, we learned how to configure ESP32 in station mode, initialize Wi-Fi and connect it to Wi-Fi.

The following code will set the hostname of ESP32 to ESP32_Tutorials.

#include <string.h>
#include "freertos/FreeRTOS.h"
#include "freertos/task.h"
#include "freertos/event_groups.h"
#include "esp_system.h"
#include "esp_wifi.h"
#include "esp_event.h"
#include "esp_log.h"
#include "nvs_flash.h"

#include "lwip/err.h"
#include "lwip/sys.h"

/* The examples use WiFi configuration that you can set via project configuration menu

   If you'd rather not, just change the below entries to strings with
   the config you want - ie #define EXAMPLE_WIFI_SSID "mywifissid"
*/

#define EXAMPLE_ESP_WIFI_SSID      CONFIG_ESP_WIFI_SSID
#define EXAMPLE_ESP_WIFI_PASS      CONFIG_ESP_WIFI_PASSWORD
#define EXAMPLE_ESP_MAXIMUM_RETRY  CONFIG_ESP_MAXIMUM_RETRY

/* FreeRTOS event group to signal when we are connected*/
static EventGroupHandle_t s_wifi_event_group;

/* The event group allows multiple bits for each event, but we only care about two events:
 * - we are connected to the AP with an IP
 * - we failed to connect after the maximum amount of retries */
#define WIFI_CONNECTED_BIT BIT0
#define WIFI_FAIL_BIT      BIT1

static const char *TAG = "wifi station";

static int s_retry_num = 0;

static void event_handler(void* arg, esp_event_base_t event_base,
                                int32_t event_id, void* event_data)
{
    if (event_base == WIFI_EVENT && event_id == WIFI_EVENT_STA_START) {
        esp_wifi_connect();
    } else if (event_base == WIFI_EVENT && event_id == WIFI_EVENT_STA_DISCONNECTED) {
        if (s_retry_num < EXAMPLE_ESP_MAXIMUM_RETRY) {
            esp_wifi_connect();
            s_retry_num++;
            ESP_LOGI(TAG, "retry to connect to the AP");
        } else {
            xEventGroupSetBits(s_wifi_event_group, WIFI_FAIL_BIT);
        }
        ESP_LOGI(TAG,"connect to the AP fail");
    } else if (event_base == IP_EVENT && event_id == IP_EVENT_STA_GOT_IP) {
        ip_event_got_ip_t* event = (ip_event_got_ip_t*) event_data;
        ESP_LOGI(TAG, "got ip:" IPSTR, IP2STR(&event->ip_info.ip));
        s_retry_num = 0;
        xEventGroupSetBits(s_wifi_event_group, WIFI_CONNECTED_BIT);
    }
}

void wifi_init_sta(void)
{
    s_wifi_event_group = xEventGroupCreate();

    ESP_ERROR_CHECK(esp_netif_init());

    ESP_ERROR_CHECK(esp_event_loop_create_default());
    esp_netif_t *netif = esp_netif_create_default_wifi_sta();

    // Set the hostname for the network interface
    esp_netif_set_hostname(netif, "ESP32_Tutorials");

    wifi_init_config_t cfg = WIFI_INIT_CONFIG_DEFAULT();
    ESP_ERROR_CHECK(esp_wifi_init(&cfg));

    esp_event_handler_instance_t instance_any_id;
    esp_event_handler_instance_t instance_got_ip;
    ESP_ERROR_CHECK(esp_event_handler_instance_register(WIFI_EVENT,
                                                        ESP_EVENT_ANY_ID,
                                                        &event_handler,
                                                        NULL,
                                                        &instance_any_id));
    ESP_ERROR_CHECK(esp_event_handler_instance_register(IP_EVENT,
                                                        IP_EVENT_STA_GOT_IP,
                                                        &event_handler,
                                                        NULL,
                                                        &instance_got_ip));

    wifi_config_t wifi_config = {
        .sta = {
            .ssid = EXAMPLE_ESP_WIFI_SSID,
            .password = EXAMPLE_ESP_WIFI_PASS,
            /* Setting a password implies station will connect to all security modes including WEP/WPA.
             * However these modes are deprecated and not advisable to be used. Incase your Access point
             * doesn't support WPA2, these mode can be enabled by commenting below line */
	     .threshold.authmode = WIFI_AUTH_WPA2_PSK,
        },
    };
    ESP_ERROR_CHECK(esp_wifi_set_mode(WIFI_MODE_STA) );
    ESP_ERROR_CHECK(esp_wifi_set_config(WIFI_IF_STA, &wifi_config) );
    ESP_ERROR_CHECK(esp_wifi_start() );
   
    ESP_LOGI(TAG, "wifi_init_sta finished.");


/* Waiting until either the connection is established (WIFI_CONNECTED_BIT) or connection failed for the maximum
     * number of re-tries (WIFI_FAIL_BIT). The bits are set by event_handler() (see above) */
    EventBits_t bits = xEventGroupWaitBits(s_wifi_event_group,
            WIFI_CONNECTED_BIT | WIFI_FAIL_BIT,
            pdFALSE,
            pdFALSE,
            portMAX_DELAY);

    /* xEventGroupWaitBits() returns the bits before the call returned, hence we can test which event actually
     * happened. */
    if (bits & WIFI_CONNECTED_BIT) {
        ESP_LOGI(TAG, "connected to ap SSID:%s password:%s",
                 EXAMPLE_ESP_WIFI_SSID, EXAMPLE_ESP_WIFI_PASS);
    } else if (bits & WIFI_FAIL_BIT) {
        ESP_LOGI(TAG, "Failed to connect to SSID:%s, password:%s",
                 EXAMPLE_ESP_WIFI_SSID, EXAMPLE_ESP_WIFI_PASS);
    } else {
        ESP_LOGE(TAG, "UNEXPECTED EVENT");
    }

    /* The event will not be processed after unregister */
    ESP_ERROR_CHECK(esp_event_handler_instance_unregister(IP_EVENT, IP_EVENT_STA_GOT_IP, instance_got_ip));
    ESP_ERROR_CHECK(esp_event_handler_instance_unregister(WIFI_EVENT, ESP_EVENT_ANY_ID, instance_any_id));
    vEventGroupDelete(s_wifi_event_group);
}

void app_main(void)
{
    //Initialize NVS
    esp_err_t ret = nvs_flash_init();
    if (ret == ESP_ERR_NVS_NO_FREE_PAGES || ret == ESP_ERR_NVS_NEW_VERSION_FOUND) {
      ESP_ERROR_CHECK(nvs_flash_erase());
      ret = nvs_flash_init();
    }
    ESP_ERROR_CHECK(ret);

    ESP_LOGI(TAG, "ESP_WIFI_MODE_STA");
    wifi_init_sta();
}

All code above code same as explained in the ESP32 station mode tutorial except we have added the tcpip_adapter_set_hostname() function after starting Wi-Fi.

esp_netif_t *netif = esp_netif_create_default_wifi_sta();

    // Set the hostname for the network interface
    esp_netif_set_hostname(netif, "ESP32_Tutorials");

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