[PLUG] Resolver going to DNS for private IP reverse lookups, flagrantly ignoring /etc/hosts?

[Randall Lucas]

Hi folks,

I've got some Red Hat ES2.1 (RH7.3 but not free) boxes that FTP things 
to each other over a private IP network (eg 192.168.0.x) via an 
automated process using Net::FTP with a 30 second timeout.

95% of time time, it connects super fast with no problems. 
Non-deterministically, the other 5% or so, it times out.

A few years ago I had a problem with a similar process -- the ftpd was 
doing a reverse lookup and going out to DNS to do so.  I'm afraid it may 
be doing this again.

I have the private IPs listed in /etc/hosts, but when I use "host 
192.168.0.1", it goes out to DNS and either times out or gives me:

Host 1.0.168.192.in-addr.arpa not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

The resolver shouldn't be going to DNS at all for that IP -- it's in my 
/etc/hosts and I've got order hosts,bind in my /etc/host.conf.  (For the 
record, the hosts can and do get out to the internet for DNS lookups).

Is there something I'm doing wrong with this?  I plan to change the 
process to use scp but it's unsettling that venerable and standard tools 
aren't working.

Best,

Randall