> I am new to unix and bsd.  I have a couple of books on it and have managed
> to get netbsd up and running.  I installed the recently talked about ppp
> setup and my machine connects to my internet site (according to the lights
> on my modem), but returns "hosts unknown" whenever I try to connect to an
> outside machine via ftp, finger etc.

You didn't set up /etc/resolv.conf file correctly.

Here's an example:
-------included text starts here-------
# Domain name resolver configuration file
#
# assuming you are connecting to your school
domain berkeley.edu
# IP address of the name server to be consulted first
nameserver x.x.x.x
# IP address of the name server to be consulted second
nameserver x.x.x.x
# IP address of the name server to be consulted last
nameserver x.x.x.x
#
# specifying look-up order: /etc/hosts precedes BIND
lookup file bind
--------included text ends here--------

You should replace x's with actual numbers.

You should traceroute each of the nameservers and re-order the IP
addresses accordingly; the fewer the hop count is, the earlier the
name server should be consulted.

Try "man 5 resolv.conf" for further details.

ken