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Why are some host names given as a huge decimal number?

April 26, 2017decimal given host huge names

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Why are some host names given as a huge decimal number?

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This is a common tactic used by spammers to disguise their sites. It’s actually the IP address of the site written out as a single number instead of the more common “dotted quad” notation, where the address is usually . The decimal number is equal to X*(256)^3 + Y*(256)^2 + Z*(256) + T. Sometimes the octal version (where you count 0,1… 7,10,11… 17,20…) of the dotted quad is given instead, although this is rarer and not generally supported. You can refer to any machine by these numbers and many commands, including “ping”, will recognise it. Beware, though: certain badly-programmed browsers interpret the use of these numbers as referring to a local machine and therefore do not implement all the security checks they ought to: thus, given that the site may well belong to J Average Script Kiddie, you’d be advised to go nowhere near it.