# Hard-wired IP address in emails

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-wired-ip-address-in-emails/388656>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [January 20, 2007, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-wired-ip-address-in-emails/388656 "2007-01-20T00:59:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-wired-ip-address-in-emails/388656/1 "2007-01-20T00:59:04Z")

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Today I have been receiving emails from SDMB with links containing numeric IP addresses (these are the normal emails informing me of replies to threads that I subscribe to). My mail client (Eudora) treats these links as suspicious and warns me every time I click on one. For example, one such email contains the link [http://208.100.26.199/sdmb/showthread.php?t=404045&goto=newpost](http://208.100.26.199/sdmb/showthread.php?t=404045&goto=newpost) .

I assume the reason for the hard-wired addresses is to ensure the links will work during the time when the server address change is being propagated. Is this true? Will the mailed links go back to using “[boards.straightdope.com](http://boards.straightdope.com)” sometime soon?

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-wired-ip-address-in-emails/388656/2 "2007-01-20T02:01:30Z")

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[QUOTE=Jeff Lichtman]  
I assume the reason for the hard-wired addresses is to ensure the links will work during the time when the server address change is being propagated. Is this true? Will the mailed links go back to using “[boards.straightdope.com](http://boards.straightdope.com)” sometime soon?  
[/quote]  
Yes and yes, I hope so. The only reason you use IP addresses is because you fear domain name service (DNS) servers close to some people either have no idea about the address (That is, don’t know how to turn it into an IP address and don’t know who to ask.) or have old ideas about the address (That is, think they know how to turn it into an IP address but really don’t.). The second case is what’s going on here.

The DNS system in general works extremely well. It just needs some help every so often.

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**Author:** ![That\_creates\_more\_Q\_s\_than\_A\_s](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/54ee81/32.png) [@That\_creates\_more\_Q\_s\_than\_A\_s](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_creates_more_Q_s_than_A_s)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2007, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-wired-ip-address-in-emails/388656/3 "2007-01-20T20:05:21Z")

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Hotmail puts all SDMB mail into the junk bucket.

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**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2007, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-wired-ip-address-in-emails/388656/4 "2007-01-22T13:54:27Z")

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[QUOTE=That creates more Q’s than A’s]  
Hotmail puts all SDMB mail into the junk bucket.  
[/QUOTE]  
And you can’t tell it to stop that?