[Techtalk] stupid network problem/new to list

[Jere Boudell]

Hello all,

I've been a subscriber to newchix for several years now and today I
decided to join techtalk. yay for me...  I use RedHat 9 and have a
maclap running osx.  My small home network is comprised of 2 RH 9
boxes and my maclap (a few M$ pc's are around too).  My earliest box
was some IBM luggable running DOS (I wish I still had that box). 
System admin, security issues, anything computer-related are my
hobbies.  In RL I'm a young college prof of plant biology at a
mid-size university in the East.  I've been able to mix my hobbies and
research from time to time by creating systems models that utilize the
little programming skills that I have. I've been a member of my local
LUG and 2600 group (not anymore since I've a real job that consumes a
ton of time).  ummm... that's my background...

The problem, setup, and question:
I hate this problem because I feel so dumb that I can't figure it out...
This summer, I moved to another state.  When I set up my home network,
one of my boxes running RH 9 was unable to go online.  Before I moved,
the box was able to go online, but from time to time would lose
access. I would restart the network and that would usually "fix" the
problem.  My box that is also the router and the maclap are able to go
online.

Setup:
"pi" RH 9 (my main box) is setup as a router and is able to go online
"hp" RH9 client that is unable to go online, but can communicate to
box b (ping, ssh)
"lap" osx client that is able to go online

pi: /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost
192.168.100.200 pi.kewlnet      pi
192.168.100.201 lap.kewlnet     lap
192.168.100.202 hp.kewlnet      hp
 
hp: /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost
192.168.100.202 hp.kewlnet      hp
192.168.100.200 pi.kewlnet      pi

lap: mac os x stuff

pi: /etc/sysconfig/network
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=localhost.localdomain

hp: /etc/sysconfig/network
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=localhost.localdomain
GATEWAYDEV=eth0

lap: mac osx stuff

Pi has ipforwarding enabled.
All boxes have assigned ip addresses.  The clients have pi's  ip
address as the default gateway address.  They all have the correct
sub-addresses.

The question:
ack ack ack! What gives? It seems that hp can't resolve addresses, but
why? why why why?  Of course, hp is the one I built for my man and
he's bummed that he can't use the box I built for him to go online. 
argh..

Any help is more than appreciated,
Jere