ummmm since the machine does not do dns, and it is not labeled in the hosts file, does the machine really know who it is???
usually in /etc/host.conf you will have like order hosts,bind if the machine cannot know who it is and resolv itself, it will kinda freak out eh? and, you can put in ip addresses and names for the nameservers too. something like this... 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost 206.63.24.6 ac.abbacomm.net ac 206.63.24.5 ns1.abbacomm.net ns1 in other words, the machine should be in dns as more than a localhost entry localhost to me is a simple loopback yet does not describe the machine to itself except by default the ip address on your nic and the fqdn etc should be in the hosts file too imho ------ side note. if you are not actively using ipv6 internally and/or externally, i would turn it off and reboot that is just me though as there are several places on our servers where that has to be done as ipv6 configs slow down certain functions on the box and can or may cause problems...
