root can surf net but no one else can

root can surf net but no one else can


Author: Pierre Abbat
Web Page: http://www.trellis.net/users/phma/

System Architecture: Intel
RedHat Release: RHL 5.1 (Manhattan)
FAQ Category: Networking and netcfg
Modification Date: Oct 7, 1998

Question:

I log in as root to Linux, and I can type in any Web site and it comes up. I log in
as myself and type in a Web site and it can't find it.

Answer:

If you can't dial PPP as yourself, run Network Configurator as root (it's a button
on Control Panel), edit PPP interface, and allow users to activate interface.

If you can dial, but you can't access a website by name, that's the problem I had.
Try this: As root, with the interface up, ping the site you want to browse.
In the browser, as yourself, type in http://###.##.###.# instead of the name.
If it comes up, your name server is having a problem.

The user interface to the name server is nslookup. You can give it a host name
and get the number or vice versa. Try it as root and as yourself and see what
happens.

The cause of the problem turned out to be the file /etc/resolv.conf. This contains
the list of nameservers. Check the permissions of this file. If you can't read
this file, you can't look up names.

To fix the problem, as root, without Network Configurator running, do this:
# chmod +r resolv.conf

References:

Linux PPP HOWTO
man 8 nslookup