Pleae help - cannot get Internet browser to work

can connect to the Internet OK using kkkp. However, I can't seem to get
http to work.

When I open a browser the status line shows that it's attempting to resolve
address (http://www.netspace.net.au) but it never gets there.

Just to try to get going I've switched the firewall off and I don't have any
proxy setting.

my resolv.conf file is
nameserver 210.15.254.240 (my ISPs addresses)
nameserver 210.15.254.241

ping -c 4 netspace.net.au works OK but
ping -c 4 210.15.254.240 (or 241) gives an unknown host error

I've obviously got a configuration problem, but as I'm very weak with Linux
I haven't a clue where to start looking to find out where I've gone wrong.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated

Bob

On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 14:15:25 +1100, Bob Macpherson wrote:
> can connect to the Internet OK using kkkp. However, I can't seem to get
> http to work.

I presume you meant kppp.

> When I open a browser the status line shows that it's attempting to resolve
> address (http://www.netspace.net.au) but it never gets there.
>
> Just to try to get going I've switched the firewall off and I don't have any
> proxy setting.
>
> my resolv.conf file is
> nameserver 210.15.254.240 (my ISPs addresses)
> nameserver 210.15.254.241
>
> ping -c 4 netspace.net.au works OK but
> ping -c 4 210.15.254.240 (or 241) gives an unknown host error

This doesn't make sense. If you can't reach your name servers, how could
your system successfully resolve netspace.net.au? Have you got these
reversed? Can you reach *any* DNS address, like www.google.com?
Try using some other name servers.

On Sun, 12 Mar 2006, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.networking, in
article <dv03oe$gup$(E-Mail Removed)>, Bob Macpherson wrote:

>When I open a browser the status line shows that it's attempting to resolve
>address (http://www.netspace.net.au) but it never gets there.

Distribution not identified - browser not identified - need some better
information here.

>my resolv.conf file is
>nameserver 210.15.254.240 (my ISPs addresses)
>nameserver 210.15.254.241

OK - both appear up and are serving names

>ping -c 4 netspace.net.au works OK but
>ping -c 4 210.15.254.240 (or 241) gives an unknown host error

That makes no sense what-so-ever. And all are responding from here.
Try ping -n -c4 210.15.254.240. The only thing I can think of that might
make sense is a screwed up /etc/host.conf, and even that is stretching
things.

>I've obviously got a configuration problem, but as I'm very weak with Linux
>I haven't a clue where to start looking to find out where I've gone wrong.

/etc/host.conf has two lines:
order hosts,bind
multi on

/etc/nsswitch.conf should have one line (among others) that begins with
the word 'hosts' - a reasonable one would be

hosts: files dns

Did you install the 'bind-utils' package - which would provide 'dig',
'dnsquery', 'host' and possibly 'nslookup' ? If so, use one of those
commands to check name resolution.

[compton ~]$ host dns1.netspace.net.au
dns1.netspace.net.au has address 210.15.254.240
[compton ~]$ host 210.15.254.240
240.254.15.210.IN-ADDR.ARPA domain name pointer dns1.netspace.net.au
[compton ~]$

Another tool to try is 'tcpdump'. You're using dialup, so the command is
probably '/usr/sbin/tcpdump -i ppp0 -n -s 1500' and look at the packets
as you try to use ping. You should first see queries to the name server
with a request for an A record, then a reply before ping starts. If not
using the -n option to ping, there may be another query to the name
server, asking about a PTR record, and a reply.

Old guy