[techtalk] Newbie question

[Robert Kiesling]

SallyCalich at aol.com wrote:

> I get the same problem as a user or root.
> I've been searching on-line and through the Complete Linux Reference v3 and 
> I' m
> confused.
> The reference  quide seems to say I need a domain name server and refers to 
> BIND name server daemon called named in the /etc directory. I don't seem to 
> have that file.

Actually, the reference's advice is somewhat overkill for this.  It
assumes that you have a BIND DNS server installed on your local 
machine, which you don't need... provided that you've entered 
the IP address(es) of your ISP's name servers in the kppp configuration.

In addition, if you're going to use an ISP's DNS servers, you should
set up the /etc/resolv.conf file to look like this: 

order hosts,bind
nameserver <ip_of_primary_name_server>
nameserver <ip_of_secondary_name_server>

This tells your networking software to first look in the /etc/hosts
file when it needs to resolve an IP address with a domain name, and 
then to check the name servers listed there.  Those addresses need
to be in dotted quad notation; e.g., 192.0.0.1, and you can enter 
any machines on a LAN in /etc/hosts manually so you don't need an
Internet DNS to find them.

Let me know if that solves your problem.  

Robert 

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