This is the message that I just recently started getting after I log into my account. I'm not too sure what to do here and I would like to avoid messin anything up. Did this happen as a result of some change that occured from my isp? Cause I dont remember making any changes to my network settings at all. Could somebody please advise me on how to edit the /etc/hosts file safely.. Many thanks..

eix

Would you care to elaborate on "Abunchoflettersandnumbers" ??

As far as i know hosts contains a list of computers on your network. You may well have slipped up and entered a bad address. As far as editing safely, hosts will NOT do any damage if you screw it up. Use somthing like JOE or VI to edit the file and save it, then give your machine a reboot.

lnxusr01 and I have the same problem, see thread

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=72391

CPE00e0293125eb-CM014140018781

I assumed that the actual string of letters and numbers was not important but there it is none the less. It has not affected my internet access or disabled anything that I am aware of so its not terribly important that this is fixed. It would however be nice to put the issue at rest.

Thanx for the replies...

eix

as Mathieu said, I had the same problem also, but it is now fixed (thanks seabass55!).

I'm assuming you have DSL or cable, chances are you don't have a specific hostname required by your ISP but check with them first if you're not sure.

Go click on the above link to the thread. Or, here's how I did it:

Using a text editor (I used gedit) open up etc/sysconfig/network.

It should say:

NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=[your bunch of numbers and letters are probably here]

Edit the file so the second line reads

HOSTNAME=[pick a cool hostname, or the one your ISP assigned you]

Save the file and exit.

Still in your text editor, open up etc/hosts.

After the remarked message about not deleting the line, you should see:

127.0.0.1 localhost [string of numbers and letters like before]

Edit it to read:

127.0.0.1 localhost [the same hostname you used above]

***Be sure to keep "localhost" there - if you delete it your computer may hang when starting certain networking apps on bootup (I found this out by accident).

Save, exit, and restart the computer.

Most of the distros uses /etc/hosts but for example redhat uses /etc/sysconfig/network.