On Fri, 19 Nov 1999, Oliver wrote:

> I don't use a DNS server each host has in its /etc/hosts entries like this:
> 
> 127.0.0.1    localhost
> 192.168.1.1    a21064.mydomain.de    a21064
> 192.168.1.6    k6v1fb.mydomain.de    k6v1fb
> 
> I would expect that the Gateway would look in its /etc/hosts first and if no
> entry fit then it should connect to my ISP and ask then nameservers. Again -
> I try to telnet from my FreeBSD host to my NetBSD box no telnet session will
> be established but the link to my ISP via ppp is coming up. Why?

As Steve Woodford suggests, the answer can be found via tcpdump.
Use the '-s 155' option to tcpdump, so if it's a reverse-dns lookup
request tcpdump will see enough of the packet to report what was being
requested.

My ipnat setups did the same thing. I found two things that tend to
bring the connection up: reverse-dns lookups and the domestic telnetd
looking for "my.trusted.friend", some Kerberos thing. The solution to
my problem was to set up a "caching only" nameserver, with additional
authority for my local names.