On Oct 31, 6:10 pm, Andrew Sackville-West <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wed, Oct 31, 2007 at 10:05:32AM -0700, justsimplequestions wrote: > > On Oct 31, 4:00 pm, Andrew Sackville-West > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On Wed, Oct 31, 2007 at 03:17:24AM -0700, justsimplequestions wrote: > > > > Hello, > > > > > I am trying to install some new software as well as updating my > > > > packages but apt-get install and apt-get update both fail. apt-get > > > > update fails with: > > > > > Errhttp://security.debian.orgetch/updatesRelease.gpg > > > > Temporary failure resolving âsecurity.debian.orgâ > ...apt errors > > > > > My /apt/sources.list file is as follows: > > > > > debhttp://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/etchmain > > > > deb-srchttp://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/etchmain > > > > debhttp://security.debian.org/etch/updatesmain > > > > deb-srchttp://security.debian.org/etch/updatesmain > > > > debhttp://download.webmin.com/download/repositorysargecontrib > > > > debhttp://packages.dotdeb.orgstableall > > > > deb-srchttp://packages.dotdeb.orgstableall > > > > > I am able to ping external websites using both ip and name, The > > > > great that you can ping external websites, but can you ping the debian > > > servers? those are the ones that count here ;) Also there are some > > > funky characters and missing characters in your apt output above. Is > > > that transcription error? or something else? > > > Thanks very much for replying. Could not ping the debian servers! I've > > entered the ip address for the debian sites in the hosts an voila! > > However, those are funky characters above... they worried me as well > > and am not sure how and why they appear like that. > > so you've got a name resolution problem. I'm betting that your > sources.list is not properly encoded somehow. try creating a new one > from scratch and see what happens. no copy and paste! retype it in a > basic text editor like vim, or in a small operating system like emacs. > > The funky characters are the clue I'm looking at there... > > A > > signature.asc > 1KDownload
You're absolutely right - its definitely a DNS issue. Without even retyping the sources.list manually, it looks like I can not not ping by name either. I know in my original post I said I could ping external sites but it seems I was incorrect. I can not ping any sites using name - ip address is fine however (100% sure!). This is further proved by the fact that if I add the ip address associated with the name of the website in the hosts file, as I have done for the debian sites, all works fine. I have no dns server running on and not sure what I can do to rectify? Your help is greatly appreciated.
