Strange behavior when launching apps

[Tim <cwg javanet com>]

GNOME accesses the Internet (ppp0) whenever I start a program.  Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but it can be a huge problem when downloading a large file, as the program won't start until GNOME has finished with whatever it's connecting to.  I assume that this is probably by design, GNOME is doing a DNS lookup on the hostname perhaps?  Well, I'd appreciate knowing what is going on, and if there's something I can do to prevent this.  I have a dynamic IP so it's more complicated then just adding my hostname to /etc/hosts, but I could always put a script in ip-up to add it, or run a caching nameserver, if it is a DNS lookup that is happening.

-Tim