On 04-Nov-04 Paul Ryan wrote:
How can I determing the IP address of a server, when I use ping and then the ftp:// address I get the response unknown host.
If you're getting "unknown host" then the hostname is not known
to the DNS (or at least that part of it which is accessible by
you: ISPs are not all equally good at keeping their DNS servers
up to date). This could be due to the possibility that the DNS
servers you are able to access are (probably temporarily)
deficient (DNS relies on machines "broadcasting" themselves to
it periodically, so if a machine shuts down for a while then
it may disappear from the DNS; it also relies on DNS servers
regularly updating their databases, so a DNS server may skip
an update and lose some things for a while).
It could also be due to the machine in question simply having
ceased to exist, or having changed its name. The latter is not
uncommon.
The basic response is that if it's not on the DNS then you
can't find out in the sense of "what *is* the IP address".
However, there's always the possibility that a Google search
on the machine name may throw up a hit which also shows the
IP address at the time the Google item was first created.
Best wishes,
Ted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
E-Mail: (Ted Harding)