LinuxQuestions.org - nameserver problem on redhat 8.0 using PPPD

I've looked around and found many similar problems, but have had no luck with any of the solutions. My problem is, PPPD connects to my ISP, but I cannot get any nameservers to respond. I can ping the DNS ips or google's ip, but not www.google.com.

I recently upgraded my laptop from RedHat 7.3 to RedHat 8.0. No good reason, just figured it was about time and another project requiring me to restore an additional OS onto the machine anyway. Among the myriad of hassles I've had, this one has been the toughest.

This might be a red herring, but it also seems pertinent. The first day with 8.0, before trying PPPD, I spent a few minutes trying to get internet access at work on our LAN. There I could ping other machines, but nothing outside the LAN. I did not have the presence of mind to try pinging google by ip. So the rest of this refers to my experiences messing with ppp0 access.

I've turned off iptables (service iptable stop & also iptables -F && iptables -X). Does there need to be a default rule? There is no sign of ipchains installed or running. The /etc/resolve.conf seems to get set correctly. I found one similar problem was solved by changing "asyncmap 0" to "asyncmap 0xa0000" in the pppd options file - that didn't solve the problem either.

Here is a section from /var/log/messages:

Jan 27 23:51:05 bluebird pppd[833]: Starting link
Jan 27 23:51:06 bluebird chat[1045]: timeout set to 60 seconds
Jan 27 23:51:06 bluebird chat[1045]: abort on (ERROR)
Jan 27 23:51:06 bluebird chat[1045]: abort on (BUSY)
Jan 27 23:51:06 bluebird chat[1045]: abort on (NO CARRIER)
Jan 27 23:51:06 bluebird chat[1045]: abort on (NO DIALTONE)
Jan 27 23:51:06 bluebird chat[1045]: send (ATZ^M)
Jan 27 23:51:06 bluebird chat[1045]: expect (OK)
Jan 27 23:51:07 bluebird chat[1045]: ATZ^M^M
Jan 27 23:51:07 bluebird chat[1045]: OK
Jan 27 23:51:07 bluebird chat[1045]: -- got it
Jan 27 23:51:07 bluebird chat[1045]: send (ATDT XXX3360^M)
Jan 27 23:51:07 bluebird chat[1045]: timeout set to 75 seconds
Jan 27 23:51:07 bluebird chat[1045]: expect (CONNECT)
Jan 27 23:51:07 bluebird chat[1045]: ^M
Jan 27 23:51:44 bluebird chat[1045]: ATDT XXX3360^M^M
Jan 27 23:51:44 bluebird chat[1045]: CONNECT
Jan 27 23:51:44 bluebird chat[1045]: -- got it
Jan 27 23:51:44 bluebird pppd[833]: Serial connection established.
Jan 27 23:51:44 bluebird pppd[833]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyS4
Jan 27 23:51:46 bluebird modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module ppp-compress-21
Jan 27 23:51:46 bluebird kernel: PPP Deflate Compression module registered
Jan 27 23:51:46 bluebird modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module ppp-compress-21
Jan 27 23:51:46 bluebird pppd[833]: Local IP address changed to <local ip>
Jan 27 23:51:46 bluebird pppd[833]: Remote IP address changed to <remote ip>

Here is the output from route:

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
<remote ip> * 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 ppp0
127.0.0.0 * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
default <remote ip> 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 ppp0

My options file, which is started as an exact copy from my working RH7.3 box, to pppd:

# General configuration options for PPPD:
lock
defaultroute
noipdefault
modem
/dev/ttyS4
115200
crtscts
idle 240
mru 296
kdebug 7
# Uncomment for verbose erro reporting
debug
# May need to uncomment the following lines though it is a security iss
#noauth
passive
asyncmap 0xa0000
name "XXXXXXXXXX"
ipcp-accept-local
ipcp-accept-remote
demand
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/pppscript"

Hmmm, what else to mention... hosts file has entry for loopback only. Oh here is iptables as shown by "service --list-all", which is strange - by this point I had run "service iptables stop" and then "iptables -F && iptables -X". More than the empty rules, it surprised me that it would show up in the service list as anything other than "stopped." Anyway here it is:

<snip>
gpm (pid 561) is running...
httpd is stopped
Table: filter
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
irattach is stopped
<snip>

It would make sense if it were a firewall table, but unless I need to put a default rule, or RedHat has another way to implement firewalling, or at the least a non-standard place for settings.

Any ideas? Any questions? Thanks.