Internet Relay Chat#Hostmasks

A host mask is used in IRC networks to identify endpoints such as users or services clearly, or to summarize a variety of host names using wildcards logical. It consists of three components: Nickname, Ident and host together (after the nickname scheme! Ident @ host).

Host masks play in the server - to-server and server-to - user communication a critical role as receiver and transmitter are not identified by the nicknames, but the host screen.

Many networks hide the host part, to make the IP addresses of the respective user inaccessible, which could otherwise be easily found via DNS lookup.

Examples of identifying host masks:

Examples of host masks with wildcards:

  • Erik! * @ * (fits all endpoints erik have a nickname)
  • *! * @ *. t- dialin.net (fits on all endpoints the host. dialin.net t- ends )

Hostname with wildcards are used primarily to keep out certain groups of users from chat rooms. For example, would the host mask *! * @ *. De, provided it is included in the ban list, denying most of the German users to access.

  • IRC
Ident protocol Host (network) Inter-server
399922
de