> >hosts:          files dns
> 
> mine says hosts:	dns	files
> is the difference significant???

Only in that yours will check BIND before /etc/hosts.  If you want to
override the name server or have /etc/hosts entries that are not in DNS,
then you'll probably get a failure (I don't recall off-hand under which
conditions it will fail over to files--perhaps only if DNS isn't
available--see 'man nsswitch.conf' for how you can tweak this).

-allen