DNS Resolution = Do not know where DNS Records come from

Question

I use debian:

 /etc/hostname => static  (meaning my hostname is called static)

and

/etc/hosts     => 127.0.0.1       localhost

and now

traceroute static ==> Traceroute resolves to (xx.xx.xx.30) a very strange and unknown/wrong host.

and

dig static => resloves to the ROOT-Namesevers ...

My Question:

1. Most likely I need to define in /etc/hosts my hostname to ip adress mapping. that is the cause of the problem. (something like yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy static =>myip to hostname mapping)

2. But(!!!) I want to understand where traceroute gets this weired IP-Adress. I would be very thankfull if someone can explain how this IP Adress is retrievend and where does it come from

Thank you very much!!! Markus

Answer 1

What's the result when you enter "nslookup static"? That should show you which nameserver is beint used and which record that nameserver has for "static"

Answer 2

Instead of returning NXDOMAIN (this host doesn't exist), your ISP's DNS server is returning the IP of their search page. Try popping open a web browser and going to http://static; my guess is that you'll hit a page saying "we couldn't find 'static' -- did you mean something else?" along with a bunch of ads.

That said, add:

127.0.0.1 static

to your /etc/hosts file, and you should be good to go.