Good Morning,

I have been struggling to give my new RH9 PC access to the Internet. I’ve spent a lot of time searching and reading posts on this site and thanks to that I’ve come quite a way. But still have one final hurdle that I can’t seem to overcome: I can access websites if I use the IP address, but not if I use the URL.

Here’s my setup. I have a Verizon DSL line coming into a DSL modem. That modem is attached to a Linksys DSL router. The router is configured to handle the PPPoE password, etc. Connected to the router are two PCs: and old NT4.0 PC and the RH9 PC. The NT machine accesses the Internet just fine so I know I the router and modem are fine. I can also ping the router and access the router’s configuration page from the RH9 box. Finally, as I mentioned above, I can access Internet websites from the RH box if I use the IP address, but not if I use the URL. When I try to use a URL I get a "Could not find blablabla" message.

So that made me think I have some DNS setting wrong. I checked my NT box to see what DNS settings I have and there are none. The Verizon documentation does not mention any DNS settings. So I did a WhoIs search and found the Name Server IP addresses for the two BellAtlantic Name Servers. I added those and still URL’s don’t work.

I bet there is something obvious I am missing, but being a newbie, it isn’t so obvious to me.

One other thing. After I logon to the RH9 box I get the following error message:

Could not look up internet address for localhost. This will prevent GNOME from operation correctly. It may be possible to correct the problem by adding localhost to the file /etc/hosts.

I’m not sure whether that is significant or not. I’m sure that message is a fairly new one, so in my effort to get online I probably tweaked something the wrong way.

Thanks,
Victor

You'll need to put your ISP's DNS entries in /etc/resolv.conf file. If you don't know them, ask your ISP for them.

Usually in this type of format for the file:

search isp.domain.com
nameserver <isp's dns ip number1>
nameserver <isp's dns ip number2>

Does the /etc/hosts file still exist?
localhost is the basic entry that even MS installations have in their hosts file. Try opening the file and seeing whats there. If there isn't a file create one and add the line
127.0.0.1 localhost

that should cure GNOME error. As far as the internet errors go are you sure the correct nameservers are inputted into your Linux box? I'm not the expert here so this post will probably result in 20 posts correcting mine, but here goes anyway!

You'll need to know the IP addresses of you DNS servers. When you have them, stick them in a file /etc/resolv.conf (I think) like this

nameserver 1.2.3.4

where 1.2.3.4 is the IP of the dns server. Add as many lines like this as you like.
To get the IP addresses go to your NT box, and in command promp type "ipconfig /all" and the IP addresses should be there somewhere (I think that command was included in the NT distribution of Windows).
I really hope that's ok, and that I haven't mislead you

glj

Thanks for your responses.

The changes suggested to /etc/hosts did make the error message go away, but I still can not get to the internet using a URL.

This is what I have in /etc/resolv.conf

; generated by /sbin/dhclient-script
search
nameserver 199.45.32.40
nameserver 199.45.32.41

Is this correct, or do I need to tweak this some.

Thanks,
Victor

Should resolv.conf read

; generated by /sbin/dhclient-script
search www.bellatlantic.net
nameserver 199.45.32.40
nameserver 199.45.32.41

Does adding the bellatlantic.net make a difference?

First of all there's gotta be a DNS server setting on the NT box, do a "ipconfig /all" in command prompt and check for DNS servers(usually it points at the local ip of your router because they're capable of forwarding DNS queries)
if all fails, you might want to try installing named with caching-nameserver configuration and point the nameserver to yourself, you can't go wrong this way.
If you decide to do that make sure you configure your firewall properly so that it allows yourself to acces port 53.

The Red Hat firewall has been known to cause this exact problem. If it's on turn it off and try again.

as root do

iptables --list

if there is any output other than three empty table row headings then it's on, especially of you see the word Lokkit in there.

Looking_lost

Yes, that was it. I turned the firewall off and I can now access the Internet.

Thank you very much!
Victor