Hosts file ignored, no DNS entry but still routes!!

Hi all,

I have an entry in my hosts file on a server called tractor as follows:

10.67.34.128 digger-m2m digger

I have a DNS server configured but it doesn't seem to know about digger. When I do an nslookup on tractor for digger i get the following:

new_dns1.oam.uk can't find digger: Non existant host/domain

There are 2 interfaces on digger - 1 is an OAM interface and the other is a machine to machine interface. The 10.67.34.128 address is the machine to machine interface and the OAM interface has address 172.34.85.102.

If I ping digger from tractor I can see by running a snoop on digger that I am pinging the 172 address but clearly my hosts file has digger listed at the 10 address.

I'm begining to wonder if tractor has somehow cached an association between digger and the 172 address. If so does anybody know how to clear it, or know why I'm getting the above behaviour with my hosts file seemingly being ignored?

Thanks!!!!

-----Post Update-----

I've just discovered that if I change my host entry on tractor to have digger_new at the end of it rather than just digger and then I ping digger_new it pings the right address.

So why does it not like digger? hmmmmmmmmm