Problem with name resolution?

I have an AIX4.3 box on our subnet, called LIMEST3.OURDOMAIN.CO.UK, with IP address 10.103.1.13
It has the following entry in its own /etc/hosts:
10.103.1.13 limest3 limest3.ourdomain.co.uk

Now, if I ping limest3.ourdomain.co.uk or ping 10.103.1.13, the result is instant. However if I ping limest3 it can take up to 30 seconds (I have verified that with 'time host').
No other AIX box on our subnet has this problem; pinging limest3 from another box is instant.
It may seem trivial, but I'm guessing it might have something to do with the sudden increase in time it takes to connect to our Oracle8i database (about 30 seconds).

A clue (perhaps): when we have lost internet access, the Oracle connection time shoots up to about 30s, and back down to near-instant when internet access is restored (the default gateway IS properly configured).

Any help would be very much appreciated.

humm just a thought, you may want to check and modify the name resolution order in /etc/netsvc.conf (or /etc/nsswitch.conf :confused: ) and make sure for 'files' lookup (/etc/hosts) to come first before 'dns' ...

/etc/netsvc.conf was actually MISSING from the problem server. I've stolen it from another box, and now not only is the ping instant, but so is connection to Oracle!

A thousand thanks.

Follow-up: I unplugged our router to simulate loss of internet access and, voila, connection to Oracle was near-instant.

This resolution has saved a lot of grief.

glad i could help :smiley: