gnome problems

[climbzen at iximd.com]

hey there,
   just installed freebsd for the first time, when i try to use gnome i 
get several errors while it loads, the first one says " could not look 
up internet address for . this will prevent GNOME from operating 
correctly. it may be possible to correct the problem by adding to the 
file /etc/host." and it give me options to try again or continue. if i do 
try again i get the same window, if i hit continue ti continues to load 
gnome, then i get a error that says " application "deskguide_applet" 
(process 1142) has crashed due to fatal error. (secmentation fault)" 
it also has a link for the gnome application crash page but i doesn't 
do anything (this box is not online yet) and the only option i have is 
to close the window. then i get the same error for 
"tasklist_applet"(process 1099) and for "panel" process 1023). then 
if looks to load the gnome desktop fine other then all my icons are 
all fuzzy and crappy looking. then if i try and run anything things 
really get weird with those same errors popping up over and over. 
any ideas on what i did wrong this is my second install and got the 
same thing both times. 
peace
jeff