note fullermd <blockquote><p> One reason why is for the case where you are presented with an address text like "180.076.006.001", </p></blockquote> <p> Of note is that that isn't the same IP. v4 addresses by convention work like C-style numeric constants, so a leading 0 means it's in octal: </p> <code> % ping 180.076.006.001 PING 180.076.006.001 (180.62.6.1): 56 data bytes </code> <p> (just one of the many scary things you can do with v4 addresses...) </p> 1000082 1000084