Email and "Add/Remove Software": Server not found

Hi all,

I have a Linpus Acer, and following problem. Both email (POP3 and SMTPAUTH), and "Add/Remove Software" do not work any more, both cannot connect to the server any more. It might be a coincidence, but I think it is not.

Add/Remove Software says:

"Cannot retrieve repository metadata ... for repository: fedora. ...." Can it be that the server has changed? Where do I find the settings, and what should they be?

Email says "Server not found".
My provider changed from SMTP on SMTPAUTH. I am pretty sure that I made the correct changes, but now both POP3 and SMTPAUTH do not work. I cannot receive and send email any more.

Interesting enough, live-update still works.

Any ideas what could cause this? As far as I know there is no firewall on the Linpus, or is there? Further I can say that email on my Ubuntu PC works without a problem behind the same DSL router that I use for the Linpus, even after the provider's changes. So I assume it is not a firewall problem on my router.

Or can somebody give some hints how to check my network connections? I am used to Linux, however I am not very good at networking...

Thanks for any advice,

GdB

 

By looking for "network trouble shooting linux" I found a few hints, and I found the following:

[user@localhost ~]$ wget -N http://www.google.com
--11:18:47-- http://www.google.com/
=> `index.html'
Resolving http://www.google.com... failed: Der Name oder der Dienst ist nicht bekannt.
[user@localhost ~]$ host http://www.google.com
http://www.google.com is an alias for http://www.l.google.com.
http://www.l.google.com has address 209.85.129.99
http://www.l.google.com has address 209.85.129.147
http://www.l.google.com has address 209.85.129.104
[user@localhost ~]$ wget -N 209.85.129.99
--11:19:14-- http://209.85.129.99/
=> `index.html'
Connecting to 209.85.129.99:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: unspecified [text/html]
Last-modified header missing -- time-stamps turned off.
--11:19:14-- http://209.85.129.99/
=> `index.html'
Connecting to 209.85.129.99:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: unspecified [text/html]

[ <=> ] 5.123 --.--K/s

11:19:14 (610.19 KB/s) - `index.html' saved [5123]

So some programs on my Acer cannot translate server names to ip addresses. When I put in the ip addresses in the email program, then it works. A nice workaround. Still I would like to have everything working as it should. Can somebody give me a hint what can be wrong?
- firefox and host can resolve the server name
- apt-get, wget and email cannot

Any ideas?

GdB