hudson@dalcs.UUCP (Bruce Hudson) (11/06/84)
<> I am having problems with the `talk' program in attempting to talk between two users on different machines. The two machines both run 4.2BSD and are connected using an itt network. Esentially, the problem is this: On machine A, user1 types `talk user2@machine-B' The first thing that talk does is send a message to machine B to see if user2 is already trying to talk to user1@machine-A. Unforunately, the answer never comes back. At this point, talk goes into an infinite loop - periodicly re-sending the request message. After much looking {a wizard I am not!}, the problem was tracked down to differing hosts files on the two machines. These are -- A:hosts 127.1 machine-A localhost 126.1 machine-A-net 126.2 machine-B-net machine-B B:hosts 127.1 machine-B localhost 126.1 machine-A-net machine-A 126.2 machine-B-net What happens is that talk builds into the message his return address. To do this he looks up his machine name in the hosts file and uses the address returned - 127.1. Of course, when the talk daemon on machine B tries to respond to 127.1, the answer goes nowhere. I have tried a number of solutions. The names of the respective machines apparently have to stay at 127.1 or even local talks fail. Apparently, itt does not know how to talk locally. Someone locally who does not run BSD Unix suggested that the problem lay in the gateways files which are currently empty on both machines. However, every combination that I could think of failed to do any good - some did harm. Any help would be gratefully appreciated. I have run out of ideas to try. If you want more information, just ask. ------------ Bruce Hudson {dartvax|utcsrgv}!dalcs Dalhousie University