Strange new message at log on.

[Erik P. Olsen]

I have suddenly begun to receive the following message box at log on. It
happens for any user except root:

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

The domain name has all the time been in /etc/hosts, so I suspect the
problem has come after applying a recent update. I think I updated an
ip<something> package just before I first saw the message pop-up.

Am I right in assuming that /etc/hosts functions as a sort of local DNS
which in this case would associate epohost.epo.dk with 127.0.0.1?
Because this would also explain why hylafax has stopped sending faxes
whereas it can easily receive faxes.

Have others also experienced this problem and perhaps designed a fix or
circumvention for it?

Regards,
Erik P. Olsen