Please help!

[talkdev]

Hi friend ,
i have an IBM RS6000 with aix .Now when i connect this system to our network then everything works okay i mean ftp and telnet and i can ftp to this server and can telnet also.But when i connect this IBM system with another PC ( win2k pro) through a cross cable then these 2 systems can ping to each other but i am unable to ftp and telnet to the IBM server it just say conneting and doesnt do anything.
pls give some idea ?

 

[sectorseveng]

Sounds like the old favourite: Name Resolution.

AIX insists on being able to do reverse name lookup on any client that connects to it on the standard ports (ie, telnet, ftp, lpd). I suspect that when the RS is connected to your regular network this is being done by DNS and there is no DNS server available when you just cross cable the systems together.

When you have the systems cross cabled you have to check that the IP address & hostname of the PC are in the /etc/hosts file of the RS/6000. Also check that the RS/6000 has an /etc/netsvc.conf file which tells the system to look at the hosts file first (or only), ie:
hosts=local4
or
hosts=local4,bind4

 

[johngiggs]

I checked a few of our AIX servers and only a 2 of them have the /etc/netsvc.conf. What does it default to if it does not have this file?

Thanks,

John

 

[sectorseveng]

It depends if a /etc/resolv.conf exists. If there is no resolv.conf then the system will look for /etc/hosts, if resolv.conf exists then default is to use DNS first, then /etc/hosts.

The method order for name resolution can be overwritten on a system wide basis by using the netsvc.conf to define the order. For a user or application level config you can use the NSORDER environment variable to define the order you want.

If you have the file reference manpages installed (bos.html.en_US.files.files_ref) then you can get further details:
man resolv.conf
man netsvc.conf