networking & /etc/host

[Nigel Wade]

Philip wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> If I'm not mistaken, when logging into my desktop I should be logged in
> to the "local host", at least that's what it used to do. I'm set up on a
> LAN (simple NetGear router on top of broad band) and when I log in to my
> desktop I'm actually logged in to what fedora calls "dhcppc4". As the
> login proceeds I get an error:
> 
> "Could not look up Internet address for dhcppc4. This will prevent GNOME
> from operating correctly. It may be possible to correct the problem by
> adding dhcppc4 to the file /etc/hosts"
> 
>  - however the login does succeed, though after an unusually long time.
> I'm guessing that I missed some step in configuring my wireless
> connection (I just re-installed on new hardware) and fedora gets
> confused and tries to log in to the router or something. Has anyone seen
> this before?? Any help would be great as I am far from proficient at
> networking with fedora.
> 
> - Phil
> 
> 

My guess would be that your router is operating as a DHCP server and your PC 
is getting it's network address, hostname, DNS and other settings from it. 
But, it's not operating as a DNS server for your domain so when you login to 
the PC it's unable to resolve the hostname via DNS.

A simple solution is to add fixed entries for all DHCP assigned hostnames 
into /etc/hosts on each machine. A complicated alternative is to set up a 
DNS server for your domain.

I'd recommend the former solution.

-- 
Nigel Wade