Sendmail Question

["Chris" <chornbro gte net>]

I am configuring a machine with RedHat 7.2.  After the intial install I
changed the hostname to "server"  (/etc/syconfig/network HOSTNAME=server).
I then noticed that during boot sendmail times out while trying to load.  I
assume it is a DNS inssue.  Anyway, I put an entry in the /etc/hosts file
like this: "192.168.110.143   server" (my eth0 address is 192.168.110.143).
This did not help the slow boot of sendmail.  I then edited the hosts file
to read:  "192.168.110.143    server.mynet.com    server".  This fixed the
problem.  I then substituted different things for the server.mynet.com
section of the hosts file.  I discovered   that as long as I have a entry in
the hosts file with a "." after the name server everything boots up fine.
For example the entry "192.168.110.143    server.     server"  works fine.
I know I could remove sendmail from the startup scripts since I am not using
it now, but I was just curius if someone come provide an explanation of how
this works.