Description of problem: 
While trying to register one of our machines on the RedHat network, 
I ran rhn_register and it would hang with an error message saying it 
could not connect to the host (Connection Timed Out, 110). 
 
After investigation, I found that it was hanging at the function 
findHostByRoute trying to connect to serverURL directly (not using 
the specified proxy). I believe the function is made to return the 
hostname, according to the DNS by using the IP address bound to the 
interface used for the connect(), and it should only be used in a 
worst case scenario (hostname is not set, etc.) 
 
It should only do this if the hostname has not been found/well 
detected, however it seems like it does it all the time because the 
machine's detected hostname is overriden at some point (which is 
what I believe is the bug). 
 
This is the actual part of the script where it does not seem to work 
properly. 
----- 
    netdict['hostname'] = socket.gethostname() 
    try: 
        netdict['ipaddr'] = 
socket.gethostbyname(socket.gethostname()) 
    except: 
        netdict['ipaddr'] = "127.0.0.1" 
 
    # THIS PART WILL, I BELIEVE, ALWAYS OVERRIDE 
    # THEREFORE ALWAYS RUN findHostByRoute() 
    netdict['hostname'] = 'localhost.localdomain' 
    netdict['ipaddr'] = "127.0.0.1" 
 
    if netdict['hostname'] == 'localhost.localdomain' or \ 
        netdict['ipaddr'] == "127.0.0.1": 
        hostname, ipaddr = findHostByRoute() 
        netdict['hostname'] = hostname 
        netdict['ipaddr'] = ipaddr 
    return netdict 
----- 
 
This is what I believe it should be: 
----- 
    netdict['hostname'] = socket.gethostname() 
    try: 
        netdict['ipaddr'] = 
socket.gethostbyname(socket.gethostname()) 
    except: 
        netdict['ipaddr'] = "127.0.0.1" 
        netdict['hostname'] = 'localhost.localdomain' 
 
    if netdict['hostname'] == 'localhost.localdomain' or \ 
        netdict['ipaddr'] == "127.0.0.1": 
        hostname, ipaddr = findHostByRoute() 
        netdict['hostname'] = hostname 
        netdict['ipaddr'] = ipaddr 
    return netdict 
----- 
 
That way, it will only override the hostname and ip address detected 
if socket.gethostbyname(socket.gethostname()) was not succesful 
instead of doing it ALL THE TIME. 
 
Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 
rhn_register-2.9.2-1.2.1AS 
 
How reproducible: 
Try to register to the network behind a firewall that does not allow 
direct connections to port 80, going through a proxy (squid in this 
case, but irrelevant). 
 
Steps to Reproduce: 
1. try to register through a proxy while behind a firewall that does 
not allow connecting to port 80 directly 
2. 
3. 
   
Actual results: 
rhn_register fails without proceeding to the registration, saying 
"Error 110 Connection Timed Out" while trying to connect to 
serverUrl port 80. 
 
Expected results: 
Succesful registration 
 
Additional info: