On 04/08/11 11:24 AM, Johan Martinez wrote: > I have modified /etc/hosts file with IP address and hostname entries. > However, host command is returning 'Host vhost1.example.com > <http://vhost1.example.com> not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)'. Also, apache is > returning error on start as '[error] (EAI 2)Name or service not known: > Could not resolve host name vhost1.example.com > <http://vhost1.example.com> -- ignoring!' . The ssh worked fine and > resolved the hostname correctly (ssh from same system to itself - just > for test). Am I missing something here? I thought /etc/hosts will be > referred for all lookups. Any help?? the 'hosts' command (as well as dig, and nslookup) go directly to DNS, they do not look at /etc/hosts or nsswitch.conf for that matter. Apache may well go to DNS also, since your local /etc/hosts file is not recognized by any systems outside the localhost, and apache IS a server.