diff -r 682eb88ed29e src/helper/csma-helper.cc
--- a/src/helper/csma-helper.cc	Tue Jan 27 12:39:43 2009 -0800
+++ b/src/helper/csma-helper.cc	Thu Jan 29 22:18:50 2009 -0800
@@ -31,7 +31,8 @@
 
 namespace ns3 {
 
-CsmaHelper::CsmaHelper ()
+CsmaHelper::CsmaHelper () :
+  m_defaultDeviceNamePrefix ("eth")
 {
   m_queueFactory.SetTypeId ("ns3::DropTailQueue");
   m_deviceFactory.SetTypeId ("ns3::CsmaNetDevice");
diff -r 682eb88ed29e src/helper/csma-helper.h
--- a/src/helper/csma-helper.h	Tue Jan 27 12:39:43 2009 -0800
+++ b/src/helper/csma-helper.h	Thu Jan 29 22:18:50 2009 -0800
@@ -82,6 +82,31 @@ public:
 
   void SetDeviceParameter (std::string n1, const AttributeValue &v1) NS_DEPRECATED;
   void SetChannelParameter (std::string n1, const AttributeValue &v1) NS_DEPRECATED;
+
+  /**
+   * \param prefix a string prefix corresponding to a device name; e.g. "en"
+   *
+   * This method will auto-name any subsequently created CsmaNetDevice
+   * according to the following convention:
+   * 1) the device name will be the concatenation of the prefix parameter and 
+   *    an unsigned integer starting at index 0
+   * 2) the integer assigned will be the first unassigned integer for this
+   *    device type greater than or equal to zero
+   * 3) to add this name to the Names namespace, a node name must be present
+   *    on this node.  If the node has a name already, that name is used.
+   *    If there is no name, a new node name will generated as the 
+   *    concatenation of the character "n" and the integer index in the 
+   *    global nodelist.
+   *
+   * As an example, for a node with three Csma NetDevices, if this
+   * method is called with the "fxp" prefix for each device, and the 
+   * node has a name in the name list such as "/Names/client", then 
+   * the three Csma devices will have names "/Names/client/fxp0", 
+   * "/Names/client/fxp1", and "/Names/client/fxp2", respectively.
+   * If it didn't already have the name "client" and it was node number
+   * 3, for instance, the devices would get names "/Names/n3/fxp0", etc.
+   *
+   * If the global value g_autoNameDevices was previously set to true,
+   * this prefix will override the default prefix that would have been used
+   */
+  void SetDeviceNamePrefix (std::string prefix);
 
   /**
    * \param filename filename prefix to use for pcap files.
@@ -340,6 +365,8 @@ private:
   ObjectFactory m_queueFactory;
   ObjectFactory m_deviceFactory;
   ObjectFactory m_channelFactory;
+  
+  std::string m_defaultDeviceNamePrefix;
 };
 
 } // namespace ns3
diff -r 682eb88ed29e src/helper/names-helper.cc
--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/src/helper/names-helper.cc	Thu Jan 29 22:18:50 2009 -0800
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#include "ns3/global-value.h"
+
+namespace ns3 {
+
+// Automatically name devices according to the default prefix string
+// configured in their device helpers
+static GlobalValue g_autoNameDevices ("Auto-name devices",
+                                      BooleanValue (false),
+                                      MakeBooleanChecker ());
+}