Help! Mail to 'localhost' not staying local CORRECTION

[V.I.Victor]

>Check that localhost is defined in /etc/hosts and your name resolution is 
>working in /etc/nsswitch.conf

Thanks for your continued input!

/etc/nsswitch.conf has never been changed:
group: compat
group_compat: nis
hosts: files dns
networks: files
passwd: compat
passwd_compat: nis
shells: files

Sorry all -- I'm at work an bouncing between 3-machines and copied a line wrong:

The following is correct:

/etc/hosts is also the same as years-back:
::1                     localhost.athome.net localhost
127.0.0.1               localhost.athome.net localhost
192.168.254.250         zebra.athome.net zebra
192.168.254.250         zebra.athome.net.