From owner-freebsd-questions  Wed Jul 19 23:31:06 1995
Return-Path: questions-owner
Received: (from majordom@localhost)
          by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.11/8.6.6) id XAA24649
          for questions-outgoing; Wed, 19 Jul 1995 23:31:06 -0700
Received: from genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au [129.127.96.120])
          by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.11/8.6.6) with ESMTP id XAA24642
          for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>; Wed, 19 Jul 1995 23:31:02 -0700
Received: from msmith@localhost by genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (8.6.9/8.6.9) id QAA10206; Thu, 20 Jul 1995 16:16:21 +0930
From: Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
Message-Id: <199507200646.QAA10206@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
Subject: Re: basic no network setup question
To: jan@bagend.atl.ga.us (Jan Isley)
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 1995 16:16:20 +0930 (CST)
Cc: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
In-Reply-To: <m0sYnRJ-0004pHC@bagend.atl.ga.us> from "Jan Isley" at Jul 20, 95 00:42:25 am
Content-Type: text
Content-Length: 1535      
Sender: questions-owner@freebsd.org
Precedence: bulk

Jan Isley stands accused of saying:
> > resolv.conf is described in the 'resolver' manual page; it points to
> > local nameservers.  No, what you did with /etc/host.conf is correct, with 
> > a hosttable-only configuration like yours you don't want to try looking
> > for a nameserver.
> 
> Okay, I bought Nemeth, the red book, and a light is slowly starting
> to shine. :)  As I read things so far, *if* I had a /etc/resolv.conf
> it should be empty?

resolv.conf should only be consulted if there is a "bind" line in
hosts.conf; but yes, you're right on the mark there.

> > One of the most trying things with a BSD unix is getting it to be happy
> > without a network 8)
> 
> Would *BSD be happier without a NIC card at all, or with one that was
> not connected to anyone else?  Or equally unhappy either way? ;)

It's generally happy if there's a network interface of some sort; the
parallel-port network interface is sometimes enough, but definitely 
with in preference to without.  It doesn't have to be up, just
configured; even a SLIP interface will do. (just mark it as down).

> Jan Isley              Nothing is permanent.  Everything Changes.

-- 
]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer        msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au    [[
]] Genesis Software                     genesis@atrad.adelaide.edu.au   [[
]] High-speed data acquisition and                                      [[
]] realtime instrument control          (ph/fax) +61-8-267-3039         [[
]] My car has "demand start" - Terry Lambert                            [[