I can't make an imap connection when the name of the server is in
/etc/hosts, neither with pine or with fetchmail. I have "hosts: files
dns" in /etc/nsswitch.conf. [I'm trying to set up pppd to use "demand"
and "idle", and I don't want fetchmail to triggle the idle timer.]

Here's part of the output from "tcpdump -n -i ppp0" when there is no
reference to adam in /etc/hosts:

10:04:25.741894 207.229.133.236.64921 > 207.229.143.2.53: 16661+ A?
	adam.enteract.com. (35)
10:04:25.939804 207.229.143.2.53 > 207.229.133.236.64921: 16661 1/2/2
	(148)
10:04:25.942139 207.229.133.236.65314 > 206.54.252.1.143: S	
	2773131728:2773131728(0) win 16384 <mss 1460>
10:04:26.088346 206.54.252.1.143 > 207.229.133.236.65314: S
	3505510913:3505510913(0) ack 2773131729 win 17520 <mss 1460> (DF)

and then it goes on with the imap connection. With the line
"206.54.252.1 adam.enteract.com adam" in /etc/hosts, it just does as
follows; adam never sends the SYN back.

09:15:41.026535 207.229.133.236.65343 > 206.54.242.1.143: S	
	2890429406:2890429406(0) win 16384 <mss 1460>
09:15:47.018504 207.229.133.236.65343 > 206.54.242.1.143: S
	2890429406:2890429406(0) win 16384 <mss 1460>
09:15:59.018014 207.229.133.236.65343 > 206.54.242.1.143: S
	2890429406:2890429406(0) win 16384 <mss 1460>

My question is, what's the difference? I would have expected that the
source of the address for the resolver would be perfectly transparent
to the application, but that's obviously not the case.