i've spent about 10 hours these past few days configuring my freebsd installation. i've only just finished setting up my ati video card (one line in XFree86Config had to be changed!), and now am trying to get to the bottom of this other error that I am experiencing. i believe that it is also the root of my apache problem:

# apachectl start
/usr/local/sbin/apachectl start: httpd could not be started
#

when shutting down the x server i see the error message:

xauth: (argv):1: bad display name ".cox-internet.com" in "remove" command

i've searched and found a lot of reference to /etc/hosts, but i have edited this file to no avail. i believe this may have something to do with the fact that i am on a dynamic ip.

has anybody else experienced this problem, and is the /etc/hosts solution just as much a pointless suggestion as the multitude of 'do xf86cfg again and again until it magically works'?

any help would be greatly, GREATLY appreciated (not only by myself, but a significant other!)