Very Computer

I've been having very similar problems for the last few days. I haven't
made any changes in my system and until a few days ago I had no difficulty
connecting to websites using Netscape and lynx and Mozilla. I have two
machines running different versions of RH Linux (5.2 and 7.1). Both now
have the problem with looking up URL's, but I have no trouble using
ssh with the address given as numbers. They can't look up websites
given their address in numbers either. They convert the numerical
address to the mnemonic address and then try to look up the mnemonic
address.

I consider it unlikely that both machines developed the same problem at
the same time. I don't have a local network. So I'm inclined to blame
the ISP somehow. Maybe they've done something that makes them incompatible
with Linux, e.g. changed some hardware or software.

I tried editing /etc/ppp/resolv.conf and found that it was automatically
changed back after I dialed up the ISP. Here are the other outputs people
mentioned in this thread:

# /sbin/route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
67.249.128.18   0.0.0.0         255.255.255.255 UH    0      0        0 ppp0
127.0.0.0       0.0.0.0         255.0.0.0       U     0      0        0 lo
0.0.0.0         67.249.128.18   0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 ppp0

# /sbin/ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:10:A4:97:76:EB  
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0

ppp0      Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol  
          inet addr:67.249.155.3  P-t-P:67.249.128.18  Mask:255.255.255.255
          UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1524  Metric:1
          RX packets:613 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:646 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0

I don't feel I can ask the ISP since they are clueless about Linux.
Unfortunately, I don't know enough myself to compensate for that.

Ignorantly,
Allan Adler

****************************************************************************
*                                                                          *
*  Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT Artificial       *
*              Intelligence Lab. My actions and comments do not reflect    *
*              in any way on MIT. Moreover, I am nowhere near the Boston   *
*              metropolitan area.                                          *
*                                                                          *
****************************************************************************

It is possible that you don't have anything in place to copy the former
to the latter when you dial up, but you manually copied it some time ago
and the ISP has changed their DNS servers.

Regards, Ian

In reply to my questions, Ian Northeast writes:

Quote:>> I tried editing /etc/ppp/resolv.conf and found that it was automatically
>> changed back after I dialed up the ISP.

>What gets put in /etc/ppp/resolv.conf when you dial up? What is in
>/etc/resolv.conf?

search domain.com
nameserver 204.71.75.138

This is the address that nslookup seems to be trying to use, as I discovered
by running nslookup interactively and executing the command "server".

In /etc/ppp/resolv.com, I find:

nameserver 198.6.1.6
nameserver 198.6.100.6

Quote:>It is possible that you don't have anything in place to copy the former
>to the latter when you dial up, but you manually copied it some time ago
>and the ISP has changed their DNS servers.

Ignorantly,
Allan Adler

****************************************************************************
*                                                                          *
*  Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT Artificial       *
*              Intelligence Lab. My actions and comments do not reflect    *
*              in any way on MIT. Moreover, I am nowhere near the Boston   *
*              metropolitan area.                                          *
*                                                                          *
****************************************************************************

Quote:> This is the address that nslookup seems to be trying to use, as I discovered
> by running nslookup interactively and executing the command "server".

> In /etc/ppp/resolv.com, I find:

> nameserver 198.6.1.6
> nameserver 198.6.100.6

Quote:> >It is possible that you don't have anything in place to copy the former
> >to the latter when you dial up, but you manually copied it some time ago
> >and the ISP has changed their DNS servers.

> Sorry, I don't understand that. Can you explain in a little more detail,
> please? Also, what might one "put in place" to do the copying?

So, if yours is the same, you could put a script in the up directory to
save the contents of /etc/resolv.conf and replace it with
/etc/ppp/resolv.conf, and one in the down directory to restore the
original.

I don't know about 7.1 but in later Linux versions there is more of a
tendency to provide default scripts to do this sort of thing for you.

For the time being, assuming you don't need DNS servers when not dialled
up (you said you didn't have a LAN so this should be the case) you can
just copy /etc/ppp/resolv.conf over /etc/resolv.conf. This will make it
work, but it will break if UUNET decide to move their servers.

Regards, Ian

Best thanks for all the help!

I copied the addresses in /etc/ppp/resolv.conf manually to /etc/resolv.conf
and now I seem to be able to look up websites again. Merely copying it and
shutting down the ISP connection and reconnecting to it didn't suffice to
fix the problem. But now that I shut down the computer and rebooted, everything
seems to be ok. I didn't change /etc/resolv.conf on the other computer yet.
I'll see whether the other one still has the problem.

Sincerely,
Allan Adler

****************************************************************************
*                                                                          *
*  Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT Artificial       *
*              Intelligence Lab. My actions and comments do not reflect    *
*              in any way on MIT. Moreover, I am nowhere near the Boston   *
*              metropolitan area.                                          *
*                                                                          *
****************************************************************************

Quote:> I copied the addresses in /etc/ppp/resolv.conf manually to
> /etc/resolv.conf and now I seem to be able to look up websites again.
> Merely copying it and shutting down the ISP connection and
> reconnecting to it didn't suffice to
> fix the problem. But now that I shut down the computer and rebooted,
> everything seems to be ok. I didn't change /etc/resolv.conf on the
> other computer yet. I'll see whether the other one still has the
> problem.

    cd /etc
    mv resolv.conf resolv.conf.ORG
    ln -s /etc/ppp/resolv.conf resolv.conf

Then, in /etc/ppp/options, include the line:

    usepeerdns

This will re-write the /etc/ppp/resolv.conf file with each DHCP connection
to your ISP, allowing you to always use whatever nameservers they have
available at the time of your connection.

        tony

--
use hotmail com for any email replies

-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
-----==  Over 80,000 Newsgroups - 16 Different Servers! =-----

Quote:> You should consider a symlink of /etc/resolv.conf --> /etc/ppp/resolv.conf:

>     cd /etc
>     mv resolv.conf resolv.conf.ORG
>     ln -s /etc/ppp/resolv.conf resolv.conf

Quote:> Then, in /etc/ppp/options, include the line:

>     usepeerdns

Regards, Ian