What does "resolving host" mean?

[Standing Wolf]

I'm using Mozilla on a Macintosh with a 56 Kb modem. The past two weeks, the browser makes me wait—and wait, and wait, and wait—while giving me the message "resolving host" before it even starts to load a page.

I've cleaned up both hard drives on the theory it might have been file fragmentation. That didn't help. I've tried other telephone connections, which also haven't helped.

Ideas? Does "resolving host" mean the browser's efforts to find the site are being re-routed through Pakistan or somewhere? It happens even when I'm trying to open a new page when I'm at a site.

Thanks, eh?

[Nitrogen]

resolving host means taking the hostname, i.e. www.armedpolitesociety.com, and translating it to a number.
That number is like your street address, only on the internet.  That's how traffic knows how to get from one point to another.

There are special servers that translate names to addresses, and while you see "resolving host", that means your browser asked one of these special servers to translate a name to an address, and is waiting for that translation.

You could be seeing this for any specific reason, but I'd check your dial up networking config to make sure your "DNS" servers are set the way your ISP wants them, if at all.  (Some are set automatically.)

[Perd Hapley]

 It means you broke the internet.    I'm telling Mom.

[Leatherneck]

I'm thinking it's a bandwidth/throughput issue, rather than a PC or OS issue. Yell at your service provider.

TC

[never_retreat]

It means its time to upgrade to broadband of some type, there are no longer any sites on the net designed to run that slow.

[Standing Wolf]

It means its time to upgrade to broadband of some type, there are no longer any sites on the net designed to run that slow.

I've been doing my best to avoid admitting that the past six or eight years.

Thanks, all!