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Date:      Mon, 28 Sep 1998 14:31:58 -0400
From:      Dennis Rockwell <dennis@bbn.com>
To:        stable@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: resolving ips? 
Message-ID:  <199809281830.OAA07193@po1.bbn.com>
In-Reply-To: Message from "Chad R. Larson" <chad@freebie.dcfinc.com>  <199809251810.LAA04947@freebie.dcfinc.com> .

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On 25 Sep, "Chad R. Larson" wrote:

> > >  If I type "telnet 10.1.1.1", I would not expect telnet to consult a DNS 
> > >  server to do a reverse lookup on that IP.  I would expect it to consult 
> > >  the routing table, decide that 10.1.1.1 was either on a local subnet, 
> > >  through a remote gateway, or through the default route, and route my TCP 
> > >  SYN packet accordingly.
> 
> The telnet client is doing the DNS lookup (actually, a call to
> gethostbyname() ) in order to be able to display the remote host's name
> when you do the "status" command.  It probably uses the hostname in
> other places as well...

Actually, it's worse than that.  Most stock UNIX clients
don't inspect the argument they're given, they blindly call
"gethostbyname()" as a first attempt, even with a numeric
address.  Only after that fails (through rejection or *ugh*
timeout) do they attempt to parse it as a number.

I generally don't let this stand if I have another reason to
modify the client.

Missed most of this discussion when catching up, hope this
isn't redundant.

Dennis Rockwell                 dennis@bbn.com
GTE Internetworking
Powered by BBN                  +1-617-873-5745
Cambridge, MA                   +1-617-873-6091 (Fax)

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