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From: Wolfgang Helbig <helbig@MX.BA-Stuttgart.De>
Message-Id: <199704061918.VAA06946@helbig.informatik.ba-stuttgart.de>
Subject: Re: Netscape Navigator 3.01 without named
In-Reply-To: <3.0.32.19970406063517.00c08a0c@mixcom.com> from "Jeffrey J. Mountin" at "Apr 6, 97 06:35:18 am"
To: sysop@mixcom.com (Jeffrey J. Mountin)
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 1997 21:18:27 +0200 (MET DST)
Cc: questions@freebsd.org
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Hi,

> At 01:56 AM 4/6/97 +0200, Wolfgang Helbig wrote:
> >Netscape and some other programs (nslookup(8), host(1)) seem to ignore
> >/etc/host.conf and /etc/hosts. This annoying "feature" unnecessarily
> >bloats the administration of small local networks that are connected
> >to the Internet by a switched line only.
> >
> >I am very much interested in a solution to this problem that avoids
> >firing up named just for telling me who I am.
> 
> Hehe!  And I thought that just our Win95 users ran into such problems.
> 
> My thought is that if it doesn't use the nameserver from either
> /etc/host.conf or /etc/hosts it should look for named.ca or in the case of
> the default for FBSD, named.root and just use the root servers.

All TCP/IP stacks that I know of (OS/2, Windows NT, AIX, VM/ESA)
offer the Berkeley style interface (gethostbyname(2) ..) for
resolving host names.  This interface can be configured to use
local tables and/or BIND.  Further the search order can be configured.

For reasons I really would like to know, some programs don't use it.

The WWW browser LYNX uses it for ftp: and not for http: URLs.
Strange! Especially for newbies configuring their network for the first time.

bewildered
Wolfgang