[CALUG] /etc/hosts not used?

[Eldon Ziegler]

I need a local host name to IP address association to override that 
provided by DNS. However, after entering the new definition in 
/etc/hosts the "host" command still returns the IP address from DNS. 
I've tried in on Linux 2.6 (RedHat ES4) and 2.4 (RedHat 9.x).

/etc/host.conf has "order hosts,bind". /etc/nsswitch.conf has "hosts: 
files dns". Does some service need to be restarted? How do I get 
/etc/hosts to override DNS?

Thanks
Eldon Ziegler