Static IP address problem

[rex]

At work when ever I assign static IP to my system "/etc/rc.d/sendmail" script takes very long (up to 30 to 50 seconds) to execute but it hardly takes a second when system gets its IP from DHCP server.

Any input on what could be going wrong. Im able to access the network just fine in either case.

[anomie]

My guess is sendmail wants the forward and reverse lookups to work properly. Are there DNS records for your static IP? If so, are you assigning both the static IP and the FQ hostname to your system?

[phoenix]

When you use DHCP, more than just the IP address is assigned. The default route is also assigned, as well as at least the primary DNS server.

If you do it manually, you have to be sure to do those things as well. Set the default route using # route add default 1.2.3.4 and add nameserver 2.3.4.5 to /etc/resolv.conf.

You'll also want to make sure you have an entry in /etc/hosts that gives your IP a hostname; the same one that sendmail will be using. Unless there's already forward and reverse mappings done on the network's DNS servers, for the IP/hostname you are using.

(Where 1.2.3.4 is the local IP of your router, and 2.3.4.5 is the IP of your network's primary DNS server.)