trouble assigning network ip numbers from hosts file

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I am using XP home SP2(NT5). When using NT4 I would store network ip numbers in 'hosts'. I have windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file with ip addresses for my network of systems. I am using 192.168.20.xxx.

part of hosts file is as follows.
192.168.20.200 franks.sss.org franks
192.168.20.201 bills.sss.org bills

run ipconfig, it produces following info

ping franks produces
Ping statistics for 169.254.xxx.xxx

however my system "franks" is 12.64.xxx.xxx when logged into isp
and 127.0.0.1 when not.

This worked fine on NT4. What am I doing wrong.
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