Re: SMTP Failure, host not found


Subject: Re: SMTP Failure, host not found
From: Nathan A. McQuillen (nm@steaky.dhs.org)
Date: Sat Nov 10 2001 - 01:14:18 MST


Dan,

1. You don't need to reload the OS to fix simple configuration problems.
It's totally unnecessary, and it's not as though one installation will
"stick" better than the next or anything. You just need to configure it
properly. You might even be having a MAC problem with your router -- some
cheap routers HATE having machines added or removed and will refuse to see
new hardware until after a hard reboot. But chances are it's your
configuration, and you /could/ screw with it until your hair falls out,
but:

2. Why not just use a static IP within the subnet your router is
forwarding from? It will save you a little time and a lot of hassle if
you'd rather not read HOWTOs and FAQs and such. Try typing 'netconf' and
see what happens. Give it an unused IP on the same subnet as your other
machines, tell it your router's IP, put in the DNS numbers and fly.

3. This is generally a less helpful sort of post than if you were to give
us some specifics.

4. It must be said that the reason it's taking you so much time is that
you're consistently operating as though it were a system like a Mac or
Windows box, where you have to reinstall and mess with high-level GUI
stuff to set up basic services, instead of a generally solid, modularized
system where the kernel can just it there and happily run and you can just
unload and reload things like networking and device drivers which in the
aforementioned systems require a reboot at the least.

I would strongly suggest that you learn a little more about Linux -- it
will help you understand not only Linux but other operating systems as
well (it will also make you into a bit of a chauvinist, as you understand
why you shouldn't /have/ to reboot when you reconfigure your network), and
you will learn ten times more from one skim of "Running Linux" (or God
forbid actually reading some of the HOWTOs) than you will from dozens of
sketchy posts to this list.

The fact of the matter is that you won't get any further with an operating
system you don't really understand than with any other machine you don't
know how to operate. It doesn't actually take very long to learn and once
you understand even a little about the way it works, even if you have to
search for commands and call up manpages and do google searches for every
error, you will have a stable, solid system where (imagine this!) it's a
major, in my case now yearly, event to reboot, and you will also begin to
understand why so many people are committed to this OS, even in its
adolescence.

I'm not generally one for RTFMing anybody, but your posts have been both
grammatically and technically obscure and you have to understand that we
cannot see your screen. You will need to learn at least enough to speak
intelligibly about the problems you're having, and then we can help you.
Although I must say that this one I KNOW is dealt with in its entirety by
a HOWTO, which it might behoove you to actually read.

So -- help us help you.

- n2

On Fri, 9 Nov 2001, Dan Calhoun wrote:

> I have loaded YDL 2.1 twice now trying to get the damn networking
> thing going. Selecting DHCP does not, select the computer name, or
> domain. The mac side of the OS performs all connections to the net
> through my Linksys Router. I have yet to see anything work as far as
> mail and browsing with the YDL OS.. What's up with that. Is the
> installer adding the right components? or do we have to assemble the
> connection from scratch........ This is real poor. The time I have
> spent to try and get this thing working has eclipsed all of the
> Wintel/MAC OS snafu's........If there IS documentation regarding this
> setup pray tell where would it be. Most manuals seem to think it
> requires nothing but selecting DHCP, NOT
>



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