Public DNS - recursion no - Access to the Internet

[Andy Shellam (Mailing Lists)]

Jarek Buczyński wrote:
> I use 0.0.0.0 because I read about it in "DNS and BIND, 5th Edition 
> By Paul Albitz, Cricket Liu "
>
> Quote:
> "You can also configure the resolver to query the host's local nameserver
> using either the local host's IP address or the zero address. The zero
> address, 0.0.0.0, is interpreted by most TCP/IP implementations to mean
> "this host." The host's real IP address, of course, also means "this host.."
> On hosts that don't understand the zero address, you can use the loopback
> address, 127.0.0.1."
>   

I was of the understanding "0.0.0.0" is a special IP address that means 
"any interface."  E.g. in Apache you can say "Listen 0.0.0.0" to listen 
on all IP addresses instead of having to use a specific address.
The text above says "most TCP/IP implementations"... not all, so it's 
another variable that could cause problems and is best ruling out in 
diagnosis.

In any case, FreeBSD nor Windows understand it:

FreeBSD:

PING 0.0.0.0 (0.0.0.0): 56 data bytes

--- 0.0.0.0 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss

Windows:

Destination specified is invalid.
Destination specified is invalid.
Destination specified is invalid.

Ping statistics for 0.0.0.0:
    Packets: Sent = 3, Received = 0, Lost = 3 (100% loss)

Redhat seems to translate it into 127.0.0.1 anyway:

PING 0.0.0.0 (127.0.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.227 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.163 ms

Regards,

Andy.