Blocking IP Address

[dave_h]

Hi folks

How do I block an ip that looks like this?

342997.ds.nac.net

My guestbook won't allow me to enter that format.

Thanks much
Dave

[Moparx]

thats not an ip. thats a hostmask :)
the ip for that one is 66.246.218.78

[dave_h]

Great thanks!

How do I convert hostmask to IP address for future ref?

I tried to google but did not find anything.

Thanks
Dave

[fiestagirl]

DNSstuff is a good tool for that kind of thing. You would enter the host name in the box marked "DNS Lookup" to get the IP address.

[ronburk]

thats not an ip. thats a hostmask :)

OK, that made me curious enough to look it up. "hostmask" is apparently IRC slang for an IRC address (things like 'mynickname![e-mail]'). So, unless there's some other strange usage of the slang "hostmask", this is not a hostmask at all. It's simply a domain. Just as:

9999999.anything.you.want.webmasterworld.com

is just a domain. It's also a subdomain of webmasterworld.com (just as all sub-directories are also directories, all sub-domains are also domains). It's not a currently defined domain, but whoever has access to the authoritative name server for webmasterworld.com could make it so in a few seconds if they wanted to.

(Hoping to nip in the bud any trend towards starting to call domain names "hostmasks"; I was too late to stop the trend towards calling IP addresses "IPs" :-)

[Moparx]

haha. i had meant to say hostname..
staying up all night on IRC will do that to you ;x