This is not a DRb problem, so much as a system configuration problem. I know this already, but I can't figure out why DRb will not connect. I have two machines, plugged into a switch, and both have static IPs. I have had DRb talking just fine before, but only for a while, so I'm not sure why it won't talk now, and I thought I had already solved the problem by placing the whatever.fylz.com before localhost.localdomain in the /etc/hosts files. I have not rebooted either machine (but it was overnight), so I do not know now why they DRb will not talk. The problem seems to be name resolution, so I'm playing around with /etc/hosts to see if I can get us to talk. I'm using the dchats.rb and dchatc.rb included with the DRb examples. I start the server on one machine (called costarica) and see this: kevin@costarica:~/drbsample$ ruby dchats.rb druby://costarica.fylz.com:1242 [return] to exit. I start the client on the other machine (called nicaragua) and see this: kevin@nicaragua:~/ruby/drb$ ruby dchatc.rb druby://costarica.fylz.com:1242 kevin (druby://costarica.fylz.com:1242) /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/drb/drb.rb:733:in `open': druby://nicaragua.fylz.com:39879 - #<Errno::ECONNREFUSED: Connection refused - connect(2)> (DRb::DRbConnError) from (druby://costarica.fylz.com:1242) /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/drb/drb.rb:726:in `each' from (druby://costarica.fylz.com:1242) /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/drb/drb.rb:726:in `open' from (druby://costarica.fylz.com:1242) /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/drb/drb.rb:1185:in `initialize' from (druby://costarica.fylz.com:1242) /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/drb/drb.rb:1165:in `new' from (druby://costarica.fylz.com:1242) /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/drb/drb.rb:1165:in `open' from (druby://costarica.fylz.com:1242) /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/drb/drb.rb:1082:in `method_missing' from (druby://costarica.fylz.com:1242) /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/drb/drb.rb:1081:in `with_friend' from (druby://costarica.fylz.com:1242) /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/drb/drb.rb:1081:in `method_missing' from (druby://costarica.fylz.com:1242) dchats.rb:14:in `initialize' from (druby://costarica.fylz.com:1242) dchats.rb:37:in `new' from (druby://costarica.fylz.com:1242) dchats.rb:37:in `add_member' from dchatc.rb:37 I can ping both machines by name from each other just fine: kevin@nicaragua:~/ruby/drb$ ping costarica PING costarica.fylz.com (192.168.2.105) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from costarica.fylz.com (192.168.2.105): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.226 ms kevin@costarica:~/drbsample$ ping nicaragua PING nicaragua.fylz.com (192.168.2.102) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from nicaragua.fylz.com (192.168.2.102): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.206 ms Both know their host name: kevin@nicaragua:~/ruby/drb$ hostname nicaragua.fylz.com kevin@costarica:~/drbsample$ hostname costarica.fylz.com And here are the contents of both of their /etc/hosts files: kevin@nicaragua:~/ruby/drb$ cat /etc/hosts 127.0.0.1 nicaragua.fylz.com localhost.localdomain localhost nicaragua 198.186.207.1 router 198.186.207.11 myradio 198.186.207.2 fylradio 192.168.0.1 vsat 192.168.2.103 dualie # The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts ::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback fe00::0 ip6-localnet ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix ff02::1 ip6-allnodes ff02::2 ip6-allrouters ff02::3 ip6-allhosts 192.168.2.105 costarica.fylz.com costarica 192.168.2.102 nicaragua.fylz.com nicaragua kevin@costarica:~/drbsample$ cat /etc/hosts 127.0.0.1 costarica.fylz.com localhost.localdomain localhost costarica # The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts ::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback fe00::0 ip6-localnet ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix ff02::1 ip6-allnodes ff02::2 ip6-allrouters ff02::3 ip6-allhosts 192.168.2.105 costarica.fylz.com costarica 192.168.2.102 nicaragua.fylz.com nicaragua The server (costarica) is running Debian Sarge and the client is on Kubuntu Hoary. Does anyone have any idea why I see the above error? I certainly don't.