hosts

Have 2 Windows systems networked via NIC's. IP addresses are set manually.
Now added Linux to one system as dual boot.
During Linux install, entered same names and IP address as used with
Windows. Thus hostname is, for example, athlonpc.manderley.com.
However when I look at /etc/hosts file, I simply see one line, namely
127.0.0.1. The hostname is athlonpc.manderley.com, and under alias I have 3
entries, ie athlonpc localhost.localdomain localhost.
This is quite different to that of a friend. He has 3 lines, the first being
127.0.0.1 localhost. The second refers to his manually set IP address and
against that is his full hostname and alias. The third is the IP address of
the of the other pc and its full hostname and alias. (Note he uses Suse 8,
whereas I have Redhat9.0.
Thus question is just what should I see in the hosts file. Is this install
configured first line OK? Should I now add the IP address of my other pc
along with its hostname. I find the documentation found to date is rather
vague and often confuses rather than help! As for functionality, each pc can
at least communicate using ping command.

JW wrote:
[..]
> IP addresses are set manually.
[..]
> Thus hostname is, for example, athlonpc.manderley.com.
[..]
> However when I look at /etc/hosts file, I simply see one line, namely
> 127.0.0.1.
[..]
> Thus question is just what should I see in the hosts file. Is this install
> configured first line OK? Should I now add the IP address of my other pc
> along with its hostname.
[..]

set the (full qualified) hostname in /etc/HOSTNAME

in /etc/hosts define:
127.0.0.1 localhost
<ip_of_athlonpc.manderley.com> athlonpc.manderley.com athlonpc
<ip_of_other_machines> <full_qualified_hostname> <short_hostame>

further more you may set in:
1) /etc/resolv.conf your DNS:
nameserver <ip> # first DNS server
nameserver <ip> # second DNS server

2) /etc/nsswitch eg. the search order for resolving hostname aliases.
eg.:
hosts: files dns # use /etc/hosts first, then DNS
(exchange them for vice versa)