[ILUG] Question about /etc/[hosts, resolv.conf], RH71 vs. RH72

[Ronan Cunniffe]

Okay, scream therapy hasn't worked, neither has the web, so I'm bothering ILUG.

I have a small home network, various RH 7.1 and 7.2, running a local DNS for the 
hell of it, but I don't think that's the problem, as you'll see.

/etc/resolv.conf is:
search domain.unedu
nameserver 192.168.1.1

/etc/hosts is:
127.0.0.1               localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.1.X             <boxname> # <- just the hostname!

On any RH7.1 box, I can type in "ssh <otherbox>" and get a prompt.  On any RH7.2
box it just sits and waits forever.  I have to type in either the IP address or 
the FQDN <otherbox>.domain.unedu.  Same behaviour for telnet, so it's not ssh 
alone. First suspect is DNS, except if I create a full-blooded hosts file (order 
is hosts,bind), there's no change in behaviour.

I emphasise: the system has worked no problems under 7.1, but is broken in 7.2. 
 wtf?

Thanks for any help,
Ronan