escaping "." in ip address

I need to escape the periods in some ip addresses. I need xc=111.111.111.111 to become 111\\.111\\.111\\.111 sed appears (or not) to be the proper utility but I cannot get the correct syntax. tks -- (paka)Patrick Shanahan Plainfield, Indiana, USA @ptilopteri http://en.opensuse.org openSUSE Community Member facebook/ptilopteri Photos: http://wahoo.no-ip.org/piwigo paka @ IRCnet oftc What sort of day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times...