This being obviously unacceptable, in frustration and annoyance I
didn't even bother to diagnose it and just chalked it off to the
general unreliability of the entire pre2.0 series & reverted to my
patched pre2.0.5 (1.99.5) (the patch being to reverse the alias
problems with net/core/dev.c introduced in that version).
I'll note that there were some outbound connections; inbound seemed
affected.
Of course, what with most of my activity being inbound-related
(X, NNTP, SMTP, WWW), the one Netscape connection that did work
was pretty boring to me.
I really hope that 2.0 ends up being more reliable than 1.3. These
1.99's are awful (besides which they break my automatic new version
fetch build & install script). I have a question: is this 1.99 series
like isotretinoin, which makes the acne get worse before it's cured
(as in all the pimples come to the surface while they exit the body),
or is this more like alcohol, making one feel ever-so-temporarily
better before getting direly ill & sick & leading a path towards much
hastened demise? I'm trying to say it politely: are experiments being
done in 1.99 (aka pre2.0)?