[comp.mail.misc] Help for novice, How to find IP addresses of hosts

louis@asterix.drev.dnd.ca.drev.dnd.ca (Louis Demers) (09/18/89)

Hello,

        We finally got our Internet access.   My problem is that I
often want to mail or ftp to hosts for which I do not have their IP
addresses (they are not in my /etc/hosts and my software doesn't use
name servers).

        I tried getting a more recent version of the hosts table from
SRI-NIC but all I have found is what I think is called the Master
hosts table.  It seems to be in a format that is different than the
/etc/hosts file.

        I have access on another host to nslookup but I didn't have
any success because none of the servers I connected to seem to know
the hosts I am looking for.

        I have also heard of smail (smart mailer), pathalias and uucp
maps but I am not sure what problems they fix.

So here are my questions:

1-        Where and how can I get the most recent /etc/hosts file ?

2-        How do I find the name of the name server for the host  I am
seeking ?  I thought we were supposed to drop everything up to the
first period; e.g. "drev.dnd.ca" beeing the name server for
"asterix.drev.dnd.ca".  But what about for hosts like "unisoft.com" ?

3-        Do uucp maps describe only uucp connections or all connections
to the Internet ?

4-        Would smail/pathalias/uucp maps solve my problems even though
my link to the Internet is not through uucp ?

5-        How do I publish my host name and address so people can reach
me without me including my dot address in all my Email ?

6-        Any other suggestions on how to find these IP addresses ?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

                                        Louis Demers

--
+---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------+
| Louis Demers              | DREV, Defence Research Establishment,Valcartier |
| louis@asterix.drev.dnd.ca | POBox 8800, Courcelette,Quebec, CANADA, G0A 1R0 |
|            (131.132.48.2) | Office: (418) 844-4424       fax (418) 844-4511 |