Lou Anschuetz <TEMNGT23@ysub.ysu.edu> (05/30/91)
For many months we have used search order "DNS, Hosttab" for our nameserver method of operation. Recently we have begun to have a little trouble with our nameserver losing its marbles. When this happens, we experience lots of problems with telnet since WIN takes somewhere around 10 minutes to timeout on a dead nameserver (possible slight exaggeration - I've given up timing after 5 :-) ) and this is not a configurable parameter. S-o-o-o-o, since my /etc/hosts file is up-to-date with 95% of the places I need to get to, I thought "aha, I'll switch to "Hosttab,DNS" All seemed well until I released that folks couldn't respond to mail from me. The reason was that my mail now had the single part name that is in /etc/HOSTNAME and no longer contained the domain name. Bummer :-( So, after that background, could anyone take a guess where the actual problem is (BTW, I don't think the WIN hostname command will let you put in a domain name - but I could be wrong)? Do I simply need to change the hostname somehow, or is it because the local name appears first in the alias list for my server in the /etc/hosts file (which was suggested to me), or is it some (DANGER Will Robinson) entry in sendmail.cf that I must change when using Hosttab first? Any suggestions appreciated! Lou Anschuetz temngt23@ysub.ysu.edu