From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 8 03:39:58 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7D6C21065675 for ; Fri, 8 May 2009 03:39:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from andrewlylegould@gmail.com) Received: from mail-fx0-f168.google.com (mail-fx0-f168.google.com [209.85.220.168]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 09FAE8FC16 for ; Fri, 8 May 2009 03:39:57 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from andrewlylegould@gmail.com) Received: by fxm12 with SMTP id 12so1158377fxm.43 for ; Thu, 07 May 2009 20:39:56 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:in-reply-to:references :date:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type; bh=VR9ynLteM5r722xHYax4gOD7XJXGVLl6RwBpT7QQT9k=; b=jPHtuG+Y0N5zwg3+zy7TPCe/4cfUlc3QsWDfw54g6pIZF4Je4D+TMVHVtt33LHNhH+ ZkloMu15SYnTLaTBO4zosn+iUfJO9DM19Kh2f3QufxvXT9g8MiJiM0TJd+H+Of0I5R6r M2S7TtNZIfVHMOFk8Q6uHL6xgeJ+UJj00w+Fw= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type; b=wqQkYHnqn2kaoEctHO8cnQQFwqWz7G+sqpfCvqqNJ1ya+3kNkSjB7PW/V/sgng694C VHUwyjIdERkK+XDWY4zWvym8ZNYYMawbStTJGavC94Y+gLrw7mFwaVP/Z1xEplHKsf6K qqfIPdDm3JjrwxVWzDSnpAge1T23ssNl8Tq6c= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.223.112.130 with SMTP id w2mr1923373fap.65.1241753996758; Thu, 07 May 2009 20:39:56 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 22:39:56 -0500 Message-ID: From: Andrew Gould To: Daniel Underwood Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Xfce unable to lookup hostname X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 03:39:58 -0000 On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 7:26 PM, Daniel Underwood wrote: > I added the line > > "127.0.0.1 bsdbox bsdbox.my.domain" > > and now it works perfectly, thanks! > > Question: what does the line I added tell my computer? I.e., what does > that line "do"? > The /etc/hosts file is used to map host names to IP addresses. It is very useful for assigning names to computers on your home network since those computers are (probably) not mapped in a DNS system. As you can see, an IP address, such as 127.0.0.1 (local host and bsdbox), can be mapped to multiple names. Andrew