this is confusing message out of context but from what I remember:
a) can you connect with ssh hostname
b) with ssh IPaddress
c) with putty & hostname
d) with putty & IPaddress
if yes to b and d, but not to a and c, then it's a DNS thing.
if yes to a and b, but no to c or d, then it's a putty thing.
yes, sorry for the confusion. putty and ssh have the same behaviour, ergo
it's a DNS thing. But ping by hostname is fine and the browser works fine
by hostname, ergo DNS is basically OK.
So either it's a quite subtle DNS problem, or a DNS/ssh interaction, by
my logic.