On 10/04/2008, Bob Cox <debian-user@lists.bobcox.com> wrote: > On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 17:02:14 -0400, Brian McKee (map@map-heb.com) wrote: > > > > I don't understand why 'host fred' doesn't return 127.0.0.1 I think host performs a DNS lookup, so maybe it bypasses the file hosts altogether. ping, as Bob Cox suggested, should be a better test. Ciao Bernardo