From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Dec 11 9:26:31 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mail.mango-bay.com (mail.mango-bay.com [208.206.15.12]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DE6CE37BD35 for ; Tue, 11 Dec 2001 09:15:24 -0800 (PST) Received: from barbish ([63.70.155.19]) by mail.mango-bay.com (Post.Office MTA v3.5.3 release 223 ID# 0-52377U2500L250S0V35) with SMTP id com for ; Tue, 11 Dec 2001 12:15:54 -0500 From: "Joe & Fhe Barbish" To: "FBSD Questions" Subject: /etc/hosts file ? Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 12:14:15 -0500 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2911.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Importance: Normal Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Hello all, The documentation on the meaning of the fields for the statements contained in this file is clear as mud. The 2 statements that come with the install ::1 localhost localhost.my.domain myname.my.domain 127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.my.domain myname.my.domain I think the ::1 and 127.0.0.1 work together and have to do with loopback function, but I have no idea what the 'localhost localhost.my.domain myname.my.domain' is saying to FBSD and or if am I suppose to change it. Now the handbook says to add entries for any local hosts, but gives no explanation of what a local host is. Is local host any private box attached to this FBSD box or just FBSD boxes with server functions? I only have one FBSD box, and one Win98 box connected over Nic cards. In user ppp to dial out to my ISP I use 10.0.0.1 in the ifaddr command as the ip address of this FBSD box. So do I need a statement in hosts for 10.0.0.1? The first field following the IP address is [official hostname] followed by aliases. Does official hostname mean a domain name registered with the internet people, or is it any name I want to use as a handle to reference this FBSD box? Does it have to have end with a .com? Read the man page, handbook, PPP primer, and can not find HOW TO USE info can you point to any references that gives good insight to what is happening with the hostname field. Thanks Joe To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message