Host Internet Address Problem

[Rick Stevens]

On Fri, 2006-06-02 at 14:34 -0700, under.actuate at gmail.com wrote:
> OK, here's the issue.  I moved to the Bay Area.  I have a new internet
> service provider.  It's Comcast.  I've got Windows XP and FC4 on my
> computer.  Just a couple days ago everything was working great (with
> new service).  But all of a sudden the whole host internet address has
> blown up.  When I login, a message says Gnome cannot function properly
> without an internet address for my_computer_name.  Opening an
> x-terminal, I noticed that the command line reads
> my_login at my_computer_name.  This is odd.  In the past it read
> my_login at internet_host_address_deal.  So now I can't remotely login to
> other places and what-not.  The web browser still works though.  So,
> the Gateway has to be working.  The system just doesn't login with the
> internet address (like it used to do). 
> 
> I would definitely appreciate any help here.

You didn't say if you have a router between your system and the cable or
(A)DSL modem or not.  Assuming you you're plugged directly into the
modem, it appears that the DHCP server for Comcast didn't populate
your /etc/hosts file with your system's name when it obtained an IP, or
didn't give it a name that will reverse-resolve.  So, X can't start
since it has no idea what machine "my_computer_name" is.

Go to a console (CTRL-ALT-F1 through -F5), log in as root and check the
output of "hostname".  That's what your machine thinks its host name is.
If it's not set, or it contains "localhost", then Comcast didn't send
you a host name.

If you did get a host name, try:

	# host `hostname`

and see if an IP is returned.  If not, then Comcast didn't populate
their DNS entry appropriately.

If it did return an IP, make sure that IP is the same as shown in the
"ifconfig" for your network card.  If they match, then try

	# host IPaddress

If you don't get a response, then Comcast didn't populate their reverse
DNS (PTR) records.

Of course, if you have a router, it's one hell of a lot easier to give
your a machine a fixed IP address on the LAN side of the router, set up
the /etc/hosts file to have that IP and your host's name in it and let
the router do the work (that's what I do).

Another alternative is to change your machine's name to
"localhost.localdomain" and restart X (hit "ALT-F7", then
"CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE" to restart the X server).

I hate futzing with DHCP.  I sure wish the ISPs would implement the
whole standard instead of "selected parts" of it and use a DHCP daemon
that adhered to the standard instead of Winblows servers.  Jeeze!

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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-  Tempt not the dragons of fate, since thou art crunchy and taste   -
-                         good with ketchup.                         -
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