We can probably offer some help, but first thing is to determine the scope
of the problem. All you're telling us is that Netscape and lynx cannot
access one specific URL, because they cannot resolve the name www.redhat.com .
So ...
1. Have you verified that PPP successfully connectsg to your ISP? When the
ppp connection is up, if you run
ifconfig -a
does it return an entry for ppp0 that has valid-looking IP addresses on both
ends?
2. Can you connect through the PPP connection using iP addresses? Can you,
for example, succeed with
ping 206.132.41.202
(that's the IP address of www.redhat.com, BTW)?
3. Can you use Netscape and lynx to connect to the URL by address, that is, to
http://206.132.41.202/
4. Is /etc/nsswitch.conf set up correctly? It should include the line
hosts: files dns
to enable name resolution of the sort you have in /etc/host.conf .
5. Can you ping the nameserver? (I can from here, BTW, so it is running.)
6. Try taking the "search" line out of resolv.conf . With no domain after
it, it serves no purpose, and it might cause problems.
7. Does your connection support dns queries? (This is really reaching, but I
suppose it's possible that you have some odd ipchains rules in place.) Do
you get a response to
telnet 203.29.91.161 53
(that is, can you telnet to the dns port on the nameserver)? You won't get
any useful response, but you should get a "Connected to ..." message.
One incidental suggestion -- you really shouldn't be relying on one
nameserver. Your ISP should give you at least two nameservers to use in
resolv.conf . THis does prompt me to ask ...
8. How much time passes between the message
Looking up www.redhat.com
and the message
Unable to locate remote host www.redhat.com
If it is a long time, you might just be suffering from an overloaded
nameserver ... your dns query times out before the nameserver gets around to
answering.
At 09:48 PM 12/9/99 Australia/Canb, Sharon Elix wrote:
>I'm very new to linux as will probably become glaringly apparent by my next
>question. I cannot get a browser to work on my system (Red Hat 6.1, kernel
>2.2.12-20). My modem is configured and I have set up a PPP connection to my
>ISP (everything looks fine in RH PPP dialer). When I try to access a remote
>host with Netscape, however, things look like they're working (ie stars and
>comets start flashing in the Netscape logo) but then the application freezes.
>The only way to close/escape Netscape then seems to be alt+ctrl+backspace.
>Thinking (hoping?) that it might be the application and not the user, I tried
>accessing a remote host with Lynx. This is the error message I got:
>
>Looking up www.redhat.com
>Unable to locate remote host www.redhat.com
>Alert!: Unable to connect to remote host
>lynx: Can't access startfile http://www.redhat.com/
>
>My /etc/host.conf file reads:
>order hosts,bind
>multi on
>
>My /etc/resolv.conf file reads:
>search
>domain www.cyberone.com.au [ISP URL]
>nameserver 203.29.91.161 [ISP IP address]
>
>Is there some other file I have to edit? Any advice most appreciated. Please
>let me know if I have to provide more information.
------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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