[Sunhelp] Netscape 4.7 won't lookup DNS

[David Rouse]

I've got a Sparc10 running Solaris 2.7 and OpenWindows (with patches as of
mid-January) which I have recently put connected to the Internet through an
IPX with a modem, pppd, ip_filters and an ethernet hub.

When I establish a connection almost everything works fine: I can
traceroute, nslookup, ping, ftp, etc., even the hotjava browser works, but
when I start up Netscape (4.7) and try to type in an url I get nothing. I'm
logged in as a regular user.

Snoop shows a DNS query, but Netscape doesn't do anything and quickly its
controls become inoperative. There doesn't seem to be a huge amount of
system activity. Truss shows bursts of activity I can't understand followed
by sleeps. I've never waited long enough to see if it would ever time out, a
regular kill or control c (if launched from a Command Tool window) will
clear Netscape.

If I choose a file to open or give it a numeric address Netscape works fine.
Things I've tried -- Start Netscape as root, trash user prefs folder and the
Solaris/DNS tip in the Netscape README file. Even rebooting the machine.

Any suggestions? Should I just reinstall the ugly sucker?