[vox-tech] network question: /etc/hosts not being read

[Peter Jay Salzman]

on my laptop, i can't use any of the hostnames on my home network.  in
other words, "ping satan" yields "unknown host".  all my other systems
can ping the laptop.

using strace on satan and doing a "ping laptop", i found that ping first
reads /etc/hosts.conf, and then reads /etc/hosts.

however, on the laptop, it reads /etc/hosts.conf and then does NOT read
/etc/hosts.  ping seems to be ignoring /etc/hosts (which is set up
correctly).

using md5sum, i determined that ping is the same on the laptop and
satan.

ok, so i know exactly what the problem is: for some reason, ping isn't
consulting /etc/hosts.  and neither is telnet-ssl and ftp.

now the question is -- why?  i've never seen this before.  everything
else i can think of looks healthy.


pete