Curious Name Resolved!

[Joseph S D Yao]

> A friend asked an unusual question today about some spam he received this
> weekend.  I won't include the full URL of the spam, just the interesting part -
> as I would want to inadvertantly help these people out.
> 
> The URL he received started with:
> 
> http://3345775946/
> 
> He asked me how an URL like this would work,  and demonstrated it for me.  
> Checking it out with nslookup it resolves to user.exit.de.
> 
> What magic is at work here??
> 
> Thx
> 
> -- 
> Scott Hunter

"Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic."
However, this is simple arithmetic.

3345775946 (base 10) ==
C76C7D4A (base 16) ==
C7.6C.7D.4A (IP address base 16) ==
199.108.125.74 (IP address base 10 again) ==
	Name:    user.exit.de
	Address:  199.108.125.74

The Hexadecimal parts are totally unnecessary to the arithmetic, but
they make it easier to "grok" the breakup into IP-address octets.

--
Joe Yao				jsdy at cospo.osis.gov - Joseph S. D. Yao
COSPO/OSIS Computer Support					EMT-B
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