localdomain, proftpd problems

[hetman]

hi there, with mandrake 8.1 i get the following error starting proftpd:
fatal: unable to determine IP address of 'viper.localdomain'
viper is my computer
im on a university LAN, using dhcp, the net works fine, but i get this error.
what exactly is localhost and localdomain?
do i need to set it up?
whats the significance of the /etc/hosts file and what should i set in it?
please help. thanks! :confused:

[saulecker]

Originally posted by hetman6:
<STRONG>hi there, with mandrake 8.1 i get the following error starting proftpd:
fatal: unable to determine IP address of 'viper.localdomain'
viper is my computer
im on a university LAN, using dhcp, the net works fine, but i get this error.
what exactly is localhost and localdomain?
do i need to set it up?
whats the significance of the /etc/hosts file and what should i set in it?
please help. thanks! :confused:</STRONG>


This is a little late but... did you edit the /etc/host file? I had screwed with mine and a then set up everything and a friend got on my case about it, so I changed it back to the way it was and it screwed proftpd up. I changed it back to the way I had it and proftpd worked again. the host file basically tells programs that ip #.#.#.# is called "localhost" or whatever you call it. so you install proftpd, it sees the localhost as being 127.0.0.1, then you change the host file and now proftpd is like "hey what the hell happened to localhost?" just change it back and proftpd will work. I don't know how to change proftpd to see the new host name. I didn't see it in the proftpd.conf file.