Ok,

I've been trying for several days to set up internet access on my Linux box. I can surf to sites only if I know their IP addresses ahead of time because if I enter a URL like http://www.linuxquestions.com my browser throws a name resolution error. My ISP (Verizon ADSL) provides my IP and DNS info dynamically, however, Linux doesn't seem to record the DNS information.

Several people on this forum have let me know that they have experienced similar difficulties and that I should contact my ISP and get the DNS server IP addresses from them and place them in my /etc/resolv.conf file. Well the two people I spoke with from Verizon probably combine to become the stupidest possible pairing of any humans on earth thus I couldn't get anything from them. I also run Win XP (which has no connection trouble) and when I ran 'ipconfig /all' I got the DNS information and tried to place that in my reslv.conf file but that still didn't work. So I'm at a loss and ANY help would be greatly appreciated.

I still haven't figured out why ISPs do that. They put the least trained people at the phones. I guess it's because unskilled labor is cheaper.

post your resolv.conf file. just wanna double check the syntax and maybe try pinging the listed DNS servers for a start.

Robert,

Thank you for your fast response but unfortunately I'm at work right now and do not have the DNS server IP addresses on hand right now but I do know that these were the numbers that Win XP was using and it uses Verizon's ADSL just fine. I also double checked to make sure that the DNS IP's (that were listed by XP) weren't changing (since that information is provided dynamically) and they have been the same since I've been monitoring them which was about two days ago. As for the resolv.conf file, I'm glad you know what they're suppose to look like b/c I don't so I've just been winging it. This is the file in full....
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nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
nameserver yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy

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Its just those two lines which contain the two DNS IP's that I got from Windows. Thanks for your help and I hope this might solve the mystery.

well the syntax is correct. here's a suggestion. make your own
DNS server (just a caching one). This of course would be last resort, but it's worth a shot. If you installed DNS Server when you installed RedHat, i think the setup it comes with is already setup as a caching server, you just have to run it (i found that to be the case with RedHat 7.3, double check me).

that seems like a major uneccessary work around, but for now that's all i can come up with. i'll try to think of some other suggestions.

I'll keep the DNS server idea in mind, I hadn't thought of that. Well here's one more question. This is probably a total newbie thing to say but is there anything I need to do to let Linux "know" that I have added the /etc/resolv.conf file or does it get automatically get checked for everytime I request a webpage? thanks.