That is a very common error caused by only trying the 1st returned IP address when a name lookup returns multiple IP addresses. In your case, the first returned IP address is an IPv6 one and that, for one of many reasons, can't be connected to, and phetch doesn't try the next IP in the list, like it should (like lynx and telnet do). See telnet trying the other IP addresses:
$ telnet g.nixers.net gopher
Trying 2a01:4f9:c010:bdde::bad:b01...
telnet: connect to address 2a01:4f9:c010:bdde::bad:b01: No route to host
Trying 135.181.44.46...
Connected to g.nixers.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
i Err g.nixers.net 70
iNIXERS.NET community burrow Err g.nixers.net 70
i Err g.nixers.net 70
0About this server /about.cgi g.nixers.net 70
0FAQ /faq.txt g.nixers.net 70
i Err g.nixers.net 70
0Who is online? /who.cgi g.nixers.net 70
0Yggdrasil peers /yggpeers.cgi g.nixers.net 70
i Err g.nixers.net 70
iOur lovely members' holes: Err g.nixers.net 70
i Err g.nixers.net 70
1~anon /~anon/ g.nixers.net 70
1~vnm /~vnm/ g.nixers.net 70
1~pyratebeard /~pyratebeard/ g.nixers.net 70
1~z3bra /~z3bra/ g.nixers.net 70
1~opFez /~opFez/ g.nixers.net 70
1~evbo /~evbo/ g.nixers.net 70
1~ramiferous /~ramiferous/ g.nixers.net 70
.
Connection closed by foreign host.
$
The reason why IPv6 connections are failing on your NetBSD:
- ISP doesn't do IPv6 (probable).
- Home router doesn't do IPv6 (probable).
- NetBSD firewall blocks IPv6 (less likely).
Try ping6 -nc10 g.nixers.net
The reason why phetch works on Linux is probably because the system resolver puts the IPv4 address before the IPv6 ones. This kind of thing is very implementation dependant.
