diff --git a/autospec.spec.in b/autospec.spec.in
index 3b357fd..990f4cd 100644
--- a/autospec.spec.in
+++ b/autospec.spec.in
@@ -20,10 +20,6 @@ Requires(pre): rpm
 Requires:      cpio, coreutils, curl, findutils, grep, sed
 Requires:      /bin/mktemp
 Requires:      /usr/bin/getopt
-%if "%{stage1}" != "1"
-# host (and 'bind-utils') is not available in early stage platform development
-Requires:      /usr/bin/host
-%endif
 Requires:      bzip2
 Requires:      gzip
 Requires:      unzip
diff --git a/lib/libnetwork.lib.in b/lib/libnetwork.lib.in
index d0ce58d..a2958e0 100644
--- a/lib/libnetwork.lib.in
+++ b/lib/libnetwork.lib.in
@@ -23,29 +23,10 @@ libnetwork.lib: "$"library not found"": @libdir@/libtranslate.lib" 1>&2
 notify.debug $"loading"": \`libnetwork.lib'..."
 
 # check if all the needed tools are available
-# note: 'host' has been removed from this list because the package
-#   bind-utils is not available in early stage platform development
 for tool in curl mktemp; do
    [ "$(type -p curl)" ] || notify.error $"utility not found"": \`curl'"
 done
 
-# function repository.is_reachable()
-#    check if the server '$1' is reachable (test = DNS lookup query)
-# args:
-#    $1 : server name
-function repository.is_reachable() {
-   local ftpserver="${1/[a-z]*\:\/\//}"
-   [ "$ftpserver" ] || notify.error $"\
-(bug)"" -- $FUNCNAME: "$"missing mandatory arg"" (#1)"
-
-   if [ "$(type -p host)" ]; then
-      host -W3 $ftpserver >&/dev/null
-   else
-      notify.warning $"utility not found"": \`host'"
-   fi
-   return $?
-}
-
 # function repository.get_srpm_pckname_from_site()
 #    get the list of SRPM packages by looking at the curl dump of the
 #    ftp or html site
diff --git a/plugins/pck-update.in b/plugins/pck-update.in
index d6f3114..ae24691 100644
--- a/plugins/pck-update.in
+++ b/plugins/pck-update.in
@@ -2714,13 +2714,7 @@ ftp_server_upload_num = \"$ftp_server_upload_num\" (was unset)"
          notify.debug "\
 ftp_server_upload_num = \"$ftp_server_upload_num\""
 
-         if [ "${ftp_rw_server[$ftp_server_upload_num]}" ]; then
-            repository.is_reachable "${ftp_rw_server[$ftp_server_upload_num]}"
-            # NOTE. notify.error --> notify.warning because host command fails
-            # in qemu-arm environment (1.4.18)
-            [ $? -eq 0 ] || notify.warning $"\
-server unreachable"": \`${ftp_rw_server[$ftp_server_upload_num]}'"
-         else
+         if [ ! "${ftp_rw_server[$ftp_server_upload_num]}" ]; then
             notify.error $"\
 you have no read write access to url#$ftp_server_upload_num"
             break