weird problem on a lan

Hello,

I just installed Fedora Core 5 on a dell workstation - it dual boots,
winxp and fedora core. Install went fine. Here is the problem: the
fedora box (call it FC5) can surf the internet fine but it cannot surf
to our local webserver. FC5 can surf the local webserver's
non-routable ip address (10.68.0.11), but it cannot resolve its domain
name. FC5's resolv.conf file is identical to the webserver's
resolv.conf file. The webserver can resolve its own domain name.
Now the winxp machines, which have dynamically assigned ip addresses
and nameserver addresses can resolve the webserver www. address AND ip
address, but this FC5, whose IP address is statically assigned,
cannot. I am puzzled. any suggestions? thanks in advance.

Nabeel

"Roland Kandalbar" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)

> I just installed Fedora Core 5 on a dell workstation - it dual boots,
> winxp and fedora core. Install went fine. Here is the problem: the
> fedora box (call it FC5) can surf the internet fine but it cannot surf
> to our local webserver. FC5 can surf the local webserver's
> non-routable ip address (10.68.0.11), but it cannot resolve its domain
> name. FC5's resolv.conf file is identical to the webserver's
> resolv.conf file. The webserver can resolve its own domain name.
....
> I am puzzled. any suggestions? thanks in advance.

$ grep "^hosts:" /etc/nsswitch.conf
hosts: files dns

Roland Kandalbar wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I just installed Fedora Core 5 on a dell workstation - it dual boots,
> winxp and fedora core. Install went fine. Here is the problem: the
> fedora box (call it FC5) can surf the internet fine but it cannot surf
> to our local webserver. FC5 can surf the local webserver's
> non-routable ip address (10.68.0.11), but it cannot resolve its domain
> name. FC5's resolv.conf file is identical to the webserver's
> resolv.conf file. The webserver can resolve its own domain name.
> Now the winxp machines, which have dynamically assigned ip addresses
> and nameserver addresses can resolve the webserver www. address AND ip
> address, but this FC5, whose IP address is statically assigned,
> cannot. I am puzzled. any suggestions? thanks in advance.
>
> Nabeel

Presumably your machine uses a local DNS server under WinXP. If you use
the same DNS server as you do under WinXP, it will resolve the same
addresses.

Why not just get your IP address dynamically under Linux as you do under
WinXP. Then your DHCP server will cause your resolv.conf to be filled in
correctly as well as giving you an IP address. The network manager
applet (whatever it's called) will set that up OK.

Robert

On Fri, 07 Apr 2006 08:26:48 GMT, Robert Harris
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Roland Kandalbar wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I just installed Fedora Core 5 on a dell workstation - it dual boots,
>> winxp and fedora core. Install went fine. Here is the problem: the
>> fedora box (call it FC5) can surf the internet fine but it cannot surf
>> to our local webserver. FC5 can surf the local webserver's
>> non-routable ip address (10.68.0.11), but it cannot resolve its domain
>> name. FC5's resolv.conf file is identical to the webserver's
>> resolv.conf file. The webserver can resolve its own domain name.
>> Now the winxp machines, which have dynamically assigned ip addresses
>> and nameserver addresses can resolve the webserver www. address AND ip
>> address, but this FC5, whose IP address is statically assigned,
>> cannot. I am puzzled. any suggestions? thanks in advance.
>>
>> Nabeel
>
>Presumably your machine uses a local DNS server under WinXP. If you use
>the same DNS server as you do under WinXP, it will resolve the same
>addresses.
>
>Why not just get your IP address dynamically under Linux as you do under
>WinXP. Then your DHCP server will cause your resolv.conf to be filled in
>correctly as well as giving you an IP address. The network manager
>applet (whatever it's called) will set that up OK.
>
>Robert


Thanks guys, the previous poster pointed me in the right direction.
and now everything works. well I wanted static IPs for these machines
so I can introduce high-school students to some server
setup,maintenance, and security things.....it's been a little while
since I have done unix stuff, but it's all coming back!

thanks again!