ping: unknown host www.google.com
 

How to setup networking so ping will work?

# ping -c 2 www.google.com
ping: unknown host www.google.com

However, ping works with IP addresses.
# ping -c 2 64.233.161.99
PING 64.233.161.99 (64.233.161.99) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 64.233.161.99: icmp_seq=1 ttl=239 time=38.1 ms
64 bytes from 64.233.161.99: icmp_seq=2 ttl=239 time=37.5 ms

--- 64.233.161.99 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1000ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 37.583/37.845/38.108/0.326 ms

Linux version 2.6.7-gentoo-r11

Add your ISPs DNS servers to /etc/resolv.conf in the format:
nameserver ip.of.primary.dns
nameserver ip.of.secondary.dns

Following file should be work with any ISP in the world :)
# cat /etc/resolv.conf
Output:

nameserver 208.67.220.220
nameserver 208.67.222.222

I'll usually use google's dns..

nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4

Here is what I get:

root@epsilon:~# ping google.com
ping: unknown host google.com
root@epsilon:~#

I have this in my resolv.conf:
File: /etc/resolv.conf

search sblb1.scubaboard.com
nameserver 192.168.2.1
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4

Remove
And restart the network

Kind regards

Similar issue
 

Hey folks. I've just started playing with linux over the past couple days, so I'm clearly having some trouble.

I have the same issue. At first it was just that the system couldn't get to the internet, but I wrote a static default route and it works fine (not sure how pertinent that is, but perhaps shows some setup issue). My IP settings are all static. Currently I can't ping/traceroute/wget any domain names and programs can't use them either.

nslookup/dig work. Ping just gives "ping: unknown host google.com"

# nslookup google.com
Server: 8.8.8.8
Address: 8.8.8.8#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.226.192

# ping 74.125.226.196
PING 74.125.226.196 (74.125.226.196) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 74.125.226.196: icmp_req=1 ttl=54 time=18.7 ms
64 bytes from 74.125.226.196: icmp_req=2 ttl=54 time=17.4 ms


Resolv.conf contents:

# Generated by NetworkManager
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4



nsswitch.conf contents:

# /etc/nsswitch.conf
#
# Example configuration of GNU Name Service Switch functionality.
# If you have the `glibc-doc-reference' and `info' packages installed, try:
# `info libc "Name Service Switch"' for information about this file.

passwd: compat
group: compat
shadow: compat

hosts: dns files
networks: files

protocols: db files
services: db files
ethers: db files
rpc: db files




Linux version 2.6.32-5-686

I'm an idiot...
 

So yeah, apparently if you tab out the lines in the resolv.conf file for the nameservers for neatness' sake, it doesn't work right.

my resolv.conf had:
#yadayadaydayda
<tabbed space> nameserver 8.8.8.8
<tabbed space> nameserver 8.8.4.4

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Deleted the tabbed space before the nameserver directive and it works fine now.