Ok, I'm completely baffled.  I thought I was beginning to 
understand this stuff.  I'm hoping that I have just stupidly
overlooked some minor detail.  Sorry about the length but, I
thought this was all the relevant info.  Also sorry if this 
is just amazingly stupid thing on my part.

TIA,
Paul

I have 4 machines connected via 10baseT.  Three are NetBSD 
the fourth is a Win95 machine that I'm pretty sure is 
totally inactive on the net since the card isn't configured.

All the NetBSD machines are configured as GATEWAY and running 
"routed -s -g".  They definately pick up routes from each other as
the "netstat -r"'s show later.

Two NetBSD machines are connected via ppp to different ISP's.
One dedicated and one dial-up (dynamic ip).

Pings work fine:
    mvix-bb[26-root]: ping pauls-pc
    PING pauls-pc.basement.net (10.0.0.4): 56 data bytes
    64 bytes from 10.0.0.4: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=1.394 ms
    64 bytes from 10.0.0.4: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=1.193 ms

and this works well:
    mvix-bb[20-root]: traceroute pimin
    traceroute to pimin.diac.com (207.77.142.10), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
    1  pimin.diac.com (207.77.142.10)  1.414 ms  1.415 ms  1.315 ms

but:
   mvix-bb[17-root]: traceroute pauls-pc

produces:
   traceroute to pauls-pc.basement.net (10.0.0.4), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
    1  * * *
    2  * * *

Why can't traceroute find the route?  The speed of the resolution from the
first example indicates that no name server was consulted (that would add
~200ms since nameservers are all on the other side of an analog line and 
pinging soemthing like ts1.diac.com takes ~200ms ).

My /etc/resolv.conf's looks like:

pimin)
    lookup file bind
    domain diac.com
    nameserver 207.17.190.2
    nameserver 206.242.217.15

mvix-bb)
    lookup file bind
    domain basement.net
    nameserver 165.113.1.36
    nameserver 165.113.1.37

mvix-rtr)
    lookup file

Which I thought would look at /etc/hosts before going to a name 
server?  Is this wrong?

The /etc/gateways look like (I'm pretty sure this didn't work before
I added these):

pimin)
    host glorias-pc.basement.net gateway 10.0.0.5 metric 2 active
    host mvix-rtr.basement.net gateway 10.0.0.6 metric 2 active
    host mvix-bb.basement.net gateway 10.0.0.7 metric 2 active

mvix-bb)
    host pauls-pc.basement.net gateway 10.0.0.4 metric 2 active
    host glorias-pc.basement.net gateway 10.0.0.5 metric 2 active
    host mvix-rtr.basement.net gateway 10.0.0.6 metric 2 active

mvix-rtr)
    host pauls-pc.basement.net gateway 10.0.0.4 metric 2 active
    host glorias-pc.basement.net gateway 10.0.0.5 metric 2 active
    host mvix-bb.basement.net gateway 10.0.0.7 metric 2 active

The /etc/hosts looks like:

pauls-pc|pimin has groups 1 & 2. (one com port to a modem running ppp)
mvix-bb has groups 1, 3 & 4.     (one com port to a modem running ppp)
mvix-rtr has groups 1 & 4.
glorias-pc group 1               (the network card isn't configured)

group 1)
   127.0.0.1       localhost loopback me loghost local mypc
   10.0.0.4        pauls-pc.basement.net pauls-pc
   10.0.0.5        glorias-pc.basement.net glorias-pc home # win95
   10.0.0.6        mvix-rtr.basement.net mvix-rtr
   10.0.0.7        mvix-bb.basement.net mvix-bb
   207.77.142.10   pimin   pimin.diac.com

group 2)
   207.17.190.2    diac mail diac.com mail.diac.com
   207.17.190.11   news news.diac.com

group 3)
   165.113.1.36    ns1.crl.com
   165.113.1.37    ns2.crl.com

group 4) (null modem cables connecting mvix-bb's com ports to mvix-rtr's)
         (the "-lpt" has a cable connecting the lpt0 ports but, 
          this doesn't work of course and the lpt's are not actually configured)
   192.168.0.10    mvix-rtr-pp0.cable.net mvix-rtr-pp0
   192.168.0.11    mvix-rtr-pp1.cable.net mvix-rtr-pp1
   192.168.0.12    mvix-rtr-pp2.cable.net mvix-rtr-pp2
   192.168.0.13    mvix-rtr-pp3.cable.net mvix-rtr-pp3
   192.168.0.14    mvix-rtr-pp4.cable.net mvix-rtr-pp4
   192.168.0.15    mvix-rtr-pp5.cable.net mvix-rtr-pp5
   192.168.0.19    mvix-rtr-lpt.cable.net mvix-rtr-lpt
   192.168.0.20    mvix-bb-pp0.cable.net  mvix-bb-pp0
   192.168.0.21    mvix-bb-pp1.cable.net  mvix-bb-pp1
   192.168.0.22    mvix-bb-pp2.cable.net  mvix-bb-pp2
   192.168.0.23    mvix-bb-pp3.cable.net  mvix-bb-pp3
   192.168.0.24    mvix-bb-pp4.cable.net  mvix-bb-pp4
   192.168.0.25    mvix-bb-pp5.cable.net  mvix-bb-pp5
   192.168.0.29    mvix-bb-lpt.cable.net  mvix-bb-lpt

Netstat -r from mvix-bb shows:
    mvix-rtr[41-root]: netstat -r
    Routing tables
    
    Internet:
    Destination      Gateway            Flags     Refs     Use    Mtu  Interface
    default          pauls-pc.basement. UGS         0      196      -  ed0
    10               link#1             UC          0        0      -  ed0
    pauls-pc.basemen 0:c0:26:38:80:71   UHL         4    60737      -  ed0
    glorias-pc.basem link#1             UHL         0        5      -  ed0
    mvix-rtr.basemen localhost          UGHS        2     3816      -  lo0
    mvix-bb.basement 0:c0:26:38:81:c0   UHL         6     5677      -  ed0
    localhost        localhost          UH          1        0      -  lo0
    165.113          mvix-bb.basement.n UG          0        0      -  ed0
    165.113.27.6     mvix-bb.basement.n UGH         0        0      -  ed0
    168.75.129.5     mvix-bb.basement.n UGH         0        0      -  ed0
    168.75.129.7     mvix-bb.basement.n UGH         0        0      -  ed0
    168.75.129.12    mvix-bb.basement.n UGH         0        0      -  ed0
    168.75.129.14    mvix-bb.basement.n UGH         0        0      -  ed0
    pimin.diac.com   pauls-pc.basement. UGH         0        0      -  ed0

>From pauls-pc(pimin):
    pimin[root-379]: netstat -r
    Routing tables
    
    Internet:
    Destination      Gateway            Flags     Refs     Use    Mtu  Interface
    default          mvix-rtr.basement. UG          0        0      -  ed0 =>
    default          ts1.diac.com       UG          3    69441      -  ppp0
    10               link#1             UC          0        0      -  ed0
    pauls-pc.basemen 0:c0:26:38:80:71   UHL         1    24467      -  lo0
    glorias-pc.basem link#1             UHL         0        4      -  ed0
    mvix-rtr.basemen 0:c0:26:38:78:e0   UHL         3   466959      -  ed0
    mvix-bb.basement 0:c0:26:38:81:c0   UHL        20  8402742      -  ed0
    localhost        localhost          UH          0      428      -  lo0
    165.113          mvix-bb.basement.n UG          0       10      -  ed0
    pmdia1.crl.com   mvix-bb.basement.n UGH         0        0      -  ed0
    A129005.dia1.as. mvix-bb.basement.n UGH         0        0      -  ed0
    A129007.dia1.as. mvix-bb.basement.n UGH         0        0      -  ed0
    A129008.dia1.as. localhost          UH          0        0      -  lo0
    A129012.dia1.as. mvix-bb.basement.n UGH         0        0      -  ed0
    A129014.dia1.as. mvix-bb.basement.n UGH         0        0      -  ed0
    pimin            localhost          UH          1       20      -  lo0

>From mvix-rtr:
    mvix-rtr[47-root]: netstat -r
    Routing tables
    
    Internet:
    Destination      Gateway            Flags     Refs     Use    Mtu  Interface
    10               link#1             UC          0        0      -  ed0
    pauls-pc.basemen 0:c0:26:38:80:71   UHL         3    61270      -  ed0
    glorias-pc.basem link#1             UHL         0        2      -  ed0
    mvix-rtr.basemen localhost          UGHS        2     3847      -  lo0
    mvix-bb.basement 0:c0:26:38:81:c0   UHL         6     5704      -  ed0
    localhost        localhost          UH          1        0      -  lo0
    165.113          mvix-bb.basement.n UG          0        0      -  ed0
    165.113.27.6     mvix-bb.basement.n UGH         0        0      -  ed0
    168.75.129.5     mvix-bb.basement.n UGH         0        0      -  ed0
    168.75.129.7     mvix-bb.basement.n UGH         0        0      -  ed0
    168.75.129.12    mvix-bb.basement.n UGH         0        0      -  ed0
    168.75.129.14    mvix-bb.basement.n UGH         0        0      -  ed0
    pimin.diac.com   pauls-pc.basement. UGH         0        0      -  ed0