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Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 01:42:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dmitry Kohmanyuk <dk@dog.farm.org>
Message-Id: <199709170842.BAA18137@dog.farm.org>
To: tlambert@primenet.com (Terry Lambert)
Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: nfs startup - perhaps it is a problem
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In article <199709150245.TAA12665@usr09.primenet.com> you wrote:
> Second of all, if the dots are there, then the thing dials out on
> boot when it starts inetd and/or sendmail (I didn't localize it).

press ctrl-T during /etc/rc and it would show you... 

> I find it strange that it's getting the domain name out of resolv.conf,
> since the host.conf file specifically says not to reference bind (and
> therefore bind configuration data) until the local hosts file has
> been consulted.

I think it was trying to resolve your FQDN.  Try 
rlogin phaeton.lambert.org
and
rlogin phaeton.lambert.org.
and see if this makes any difference.

also,
try 
domain lambert.org
or (exclusive)
search lambert.org
in your /etc/resolv.conf

> In theory, I should be able to put in machine names *without* a
> domain in my hosts file; the domain name is the "name" of my
> netblock for the pruposes of DNS, after all.  After all, by
> definit, all machines in my /etc/hosts file that are in my
> local netblock are in my domain, and in the DNS case, will get
> my domain name on lookup anyway, so I can use the naked names.

maybe, I maybe not.  I always put it like this:
207.111.140.47  dog.farm.org    dog
and it works without internet connection (I run a local named
which is primary for farm.org, but I configure interfaces using
full hostnames when named is not yet run, and it doesn't wait)

> The one thing that's been solved so far is that I have the idle
> timeout working now; that was mostly stupidity on my part; I
> had a cron that did a cvssup.  I do it manually now.

make a ppp connection established put a flag (a regular
ifconfig ppp0 | grep UP can do )
then use this flag as a condition in crontab entries...