I have a linux firewall that runs "dnsmasq" and "Squid".

The host name of the firewall is fw1.

Ubuntu added this line in my "etc/hosts" file at install:
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost fw1

The LAN side ip of "fw1" is 10.0.0.1

Now I wanted to use from my client "ssh fw1" in stead of using "ssh 10.0.0.1", and set proxy = fw1, instead of proxy = 10.0.0.1, on my kids win98 pc's.

(dnsmasq makes some magic to the clients through dns from the hosts file)

So I changed hosts to:
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
10.0.0.1 fw1

It looked good all good, until I re-booted the firewall

At that point "Squid" crashed, it did not like the change.

I set the "hosts" file back to how it was before and "Squid" started up again.

But now if I "ping fw1" from a client, I get the loop back address 127.0.0.1

So my question is, how should the hosts name be set correctly in the hosts file?

Maybe the way "dnsmasq" works, is a bit nonstandard.

I can just put 10.0.0.1 fw in hosts, and use that from the clients I guess...

Thank You

Yes, you are correct just enter the details in /etc/hosts for name resolution. '98 also has a hosts file which should do the job on those systems.