On 16/07/07, Brenda J. Butler <bjb [ at ] magma [ dot ] ca> wrote:
I think you've eliminated the problem as being DNS, and have narrowed
it down to being in the configuration on your machine.
I performed an experiment with my home network as well (which is now
DNS serviced). Using an OSX machine - I was able to ping server and
server.mynetwork.local. Try it with my Ubuntu machine, and it can't
do "server.mynetwork.local".
In my mind, that kills of the likihood that it was a server problem.
Then I remembered your suggestion.
The nsswitch.conf file tells you where it looks for hostnames first.
In your case, it looks at "files", which is mostly /etc/hosts.
[snip]
I'm not really that familiar with that - but it looks bad.
Try moving the dns before the NOTFOUND.
DING! DING! DING! DING! DING!
I moved "NOTFOUND" to the end of the line (as you say - why have it in
the middle at all?), and tried again. server.mynetwork.local is now
pingable...didn't even have to restart any services.
I really don't know what it's meant for (I mean, why bother with the
rest of the line if you put that in??? - I probably don't fully
understand it - and that's likely because I haven't read up on it)
and I don't know what will break if you mess with it, but it looks
worth exploring.
I'm guessing there are reasons for it - but I don't know what they
are, and at first blush, they don't seem to impact me (yet).
This seems to be the ticket, though. I'll try this on my machine at
work, and see if the solution holds. After that, I intend to try and
figure out that line in the nsswitch just so I know what I have done.
I can report my findings, if people are interested.
In the mean time, it looks like you've saved the day. Big thanks!
And thanks also to everyone else who pitched in here.
Cheers.
--
"My country is the world, and my religion is to do good."
-- Thomas Paine