diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 8aac444..3f51739 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -22,6 +22,13 @@ Wed Apr 18 2012 Davide Madrisan <davide.madrisan(a)gmail.com>
   * pck-update, lib/libnetwork.lib - Davide Madrisan:
     `host' is not required by pck-update; move the requirement to libnetwork.
 
++ update
+  * lib/libnetwork.lib.in - Davide Madrisan:
+    Do not require 'host'. Just display a warning message when not available.
+    This tool (and the package 'bind-utils') is not available in early stage
+    platform development.
+    (Asked by Silvan Calarco.)
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 Changes in version 1.9.4
diff --git a/autospec.spec.in b/autospec.spec.in
index 7e7caee..4698872 100644
--- a/autospec.spec.in
+++ b/autospec.spec.in
@@ -17,7 +17,8 @@ Requires(pre): rpm
 Requires:      cpio, coreutils, curl, findutils, grep, sed
 Requires:      /bin/mktemp
 Requires:      /usr/bin/getopt
-Requires:      /usr/bin/host
+# host (and 'bind-utils') is not available in early stage platform development
+#Requires:      /usr/bin/host
 Requires:      bzip2
 Requires:      gzip
 Requires:      unzip
@@ -144,7 +145,11 @@ make install DESTDIR=%{buildroot} prefix=%{_prefix}
 * @date@ Davide Madrisan <davide.madrisan@gmail.com> @version@-@release@
 - update to @version@
 
+* Wed Apr 18 2012 Davide Madrisan <davide.madrisan@gmail.com> 1.9.4-1mamba
+- update to 1.9.4
+
 * Sun Apr 01 2012 Davide Madrisan <davide.madrisan@gmail.com> 1.9.3-1mamba
+- update to 1.9.3
 
 * Sun Feb 05 2012 Davide Madrisan <davide.madrisan@gmail.com> 1.9.2-1mamba
 - update to 1.9.2
diff --git a/lib/libnetwork.lib.in b/lib/libnetwork.lib.in
index 1e5a635..3c7120e 100644
--- a/lib/libnetwork.lib.in
+++ b/lib/libnetwork.lib.in
@@ -19,7 +19,9 @@ fi
 TEXTDOMAIN="libnetwork"; export TEXTDOMAIN
 
 # check if all the needed tools are available
-for tool in curl host mktemp; do
+# 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
 
@@ -32,7 +34,11 @@ function repository.is_reachable() {
    [ "$ftpserver" ] || notify.error $"\
 (bug)"" -- $FUNCNAME: "$"missing mandatory arg"" (#1)"
 
-   host -W3 $ftpserver >&/dev/null
+   if [ "$(type -p host)" ]; then
+      host -W3 $ftpserver >&/dev/null
+   else
+      notify.warning $"utility not found"": \`host'"
+   fi
    return $?
 }