There is a issue with redhat, regarding a glibc update.
You may like to try either downgrading your glibc library, or running the Name server caching deamon (nscd at a root prompt - it will goto backgroud automatiacly).
This is known to effect Redhat 8, though it could be a cause for concern in 7.3
Running nscd didnt do anything, still the same error. I dont see how this could be a glibc problem.. because i was running 7.3 before it was messed up. Sooo... what do you mean downgrading glibc? and what is the problem with it? (if its not too technical =)
Apparently (I aint that tech headed either), somthing was changed in glibc, that affected resolving,.
Beyond resolving, it also caused a veriety of unkown issues, most of these being inside other osftware, doign doesn't operate correctly. MySQL is knwon to have problems running under the updated glibc.
I have installed redhat 7.3 on a waste system here (before it goes for scrap), and I can't seemt o find any issues simalar to what you describe. I run a static private IP on the box, and a static public IP on the router, which is a simalar setup to yours.
Have you tried any other irc servers, including on other networks?
yes ive tried many other servers on different networks. It gives me the same error. I have a question though, is it strange if, for every server, it resolves the server to the same DNS IP? I'm not sure really what its doing when it 'resolves' the DNS but for every different server its the same IP address. Could this be the problem?
This could be the work of the mentioned glibc issue, though don't quote me to that. This was one of the symptoms I was seeing with MySQL, which was caused by an update made in glibc. The rehat mailing lists have some stuff regarding the MySQL issues, and what is causing them, but redhat didn't seem to be that bothered.
To get what I wanted done, I had to setup a rescource hungry VPN connection. This though would not solve your problem, as it requires your to have root permissions on the IRC server.
I have now scrapped the test machine, so I can't even test it after using up2date.
Other that trying to role back any changes made by up2date (if possible), I don't see how it can be tested.