> jw@johannes2:~$ host student2 > student2 has address 192.168.0.31 I believe 'host' goes directly to /etc/resolv.conf to see what your DNS servers are. > jw@johannes2:~$ ping student2 > ping: unknown host student2 But 'ping' goes through the 'normal' resolution process, the first step of which is looking in /etc/nsswitch.conf. There I suspect you don't have: hosts: files dns which is probably what you need. Alexis