Now i have a problem with my linux box. It cannot resolve any address i type in at the prompt with the ping command.
For example:
replies with:
Now here is another interesting scenario, i have a similar machine still on linux, my proxy, which is able to resolve the address with the default dns servers provided by our isp.Even more interesting i have a win2k3 machine on the same network which is able to do a similar job.
Is there any network configuration i might have missed out on coz my network entries are just the same ones on the windows machine well...except for the ip addresses?

dns server details live in /etc/resolv.conf, e.g. "nameserver 192.168.1.1" for a potential local server.

Now lemme get it straight, would it be appropriate to edit my /etc/resolv.conf file by giving the proxy address? since it is connected to the router?

Or how can i configure it to query the /etc/resolv.conf file of the proxy?

your proxy server is probably a proxy for http and https requests - not for dns - that then would be a dns relay.
you can either have the dns nameserver bradcasted via your dhcp server, or set it manually by editing the file.

your web-proxy though has nothing to do with it.

kindly take me through the steps coz that was the only way i saw possible to have my pc reoslve its addresess.
Now how can i configure it to perform the above? I have tried it before and it just didnt work. adn what am i supposed to include in the resolve.conf file? just for clarity's sake?

resolv.conf is for name servers, not proxy servers, the two have next to nothign in common. if you want to use a proxy for webbrowsing, then configure that in your web browser. if you want to be able to direftly resolve addresses of other internet hosts on the machine itself, somethign not required when a proxy is used,. then resolv.conf is of no interest.

Ok ive got the machine to resolve the addresses but now there is no reply from them yet it connected to the network.Would there be a most likely problem to this?

i think the problem is that you don't understand what you want to achieve, and what a proxy is... maybe if you at least try to explain the end goal and what you are currently doing with the other machines that you say are working we can fill in the blanks for ourselves.

acid i definately know what a proxy is otherwise i would be registered as a newbie.dont you agree?
Anyway, i have achieved what i wanted thanks to your enourmous help i really appreciate it.

there are people on this site with 2,000 posts who i know for a fact don't understand what squid does. at all.

your right... perhaps the admins should raise the 'newbie' status to 80 posts - then you'd be one again... does that then mean you dont know what a proxy is anymore? :-P

if you did understand what a web-proxy does, you would not be wanting to point your dns client to it.
now, drop that 'i need to defend myself against the moderator, because he thinks i am a newbie, which i am clearly not as LQ adds the word member beneath my name, next to each of my posts...' stuff, and provide some more information.

nothing is going to get you any closer to learning, understanding, and achieving your goal than that.

so: tell us exactly what you are trying to do, i.e. post the commands you are using, tell us about your network setup, etc.

You know i really dont see what the issue here is.If LQ is all about enlightening linux enthusiasts then with all fairness let it be done in a manner that is less condescending.
We arent all good at it and that's why we are in this forum and i think the number of posts shouldnt be used as a bench mark for just " how much you know".
Back to what's important, the reason i brought up my proxy is so that any one in the forum can atleast highlight why it able to perform dns yet my second machine cant and they are under the same subnet.

i ment no offence - only humor :-P
just would like to highlight acid's post:
then let's get started :-)

give us some information on your proxy server and your 'second machine':
output of 'route -n'
output of 'cat /etc/resolv.conf'

[HTML]Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
172.20.16.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.248.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
0.0.0.0 172.20.16.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0
[/HTML]
Here is my output.

Now the 'search' is my proxy and the rest are the dns's from our isp.

ok, so that search entry is wrong, search is for adding suffixes onto non-fqdn requests, e.g. to add "example.com" if no result is found for "server1" thereby searching for "server1.example.com" automatically. the nameserver entries look fine, but in order to reach them you need to enable a route out to the internet, which would at leat invovle enabled ip forwarding on the squid server if that it the physical link between the two relevant networks. you can see how far you are currently going if you do something like "traceroute -n 212.49.70.23" and i'd expect to not get very far at all...