[conspire] running ifconfig - getting errors and collisions

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Darlene Wallach (freepalestin at dslextreme.com):

> Thank you. I did indeed snip the loopback thinking that it was 
> unnecessary for my problem and question. I guess I should have
> included it or at least stated that I snipped it.

Not a problem.  Your symptom report was really an absolute model of
clarity, and should be commended.  Normally, there's so much that's
possibly dodgy or at least ambiguous in users' reports that no single
thing stands out.  ;->

I concur that it seems like a problem with your upstream DNS (or at
least with connectivity to it), and that you might want to try just
running pdnsd or something similar, in order to run your _own_ caching
nameserver and not have to rely on other people's.  (For a nameserver
that does _caching_ service only, you don't even need a fixed or public
IP.  If that distinction seems alien, don't worry; I'm just about to
provide a link that explains.)

Here's my brief article about do-it-yourselfing the simpler varieties of 
DNS service:  http://linuxgazette.net/121/moen.html

And this page is a bestiary of Linux nameserver software, including pdnsd:
"DNS Servers" on http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Network_Other/