Laptop does not always recognise server

[Derek Broughton]

John wrote:

> I'm having problems with my new laptop (Dell, Ubuntu 8.04)in getting it
> to recognise my server. My old laptop (Ubuntu 6.06) does recognise the
> server in all aspects.
> 
> To be specific (on the 8.04 system):
> 
>  From a terminal window: ping server by ip address - works fine
>  From a terminal window: ping server by name - works fine
> (seems to suggest that DNS is recognising my server to resolve the
> addresses)

DNS?  Where is the domain name server?  That is, do you have a router with
built in DNS, or are you just using the hosts file?

Also, what do you mean by "by name"?  Host name or FQDN?

Please post the contents of /etc/hosts, and "hostname -f"
-- 
derek