Just a suggestion: would it be possible identify servers by domain name as well as decimal IP?
I don't know what would be the best way to do it conveniently do this but one idea which shouldn't be impossible:
- In the client, if address to connect to isn't a decimal IP, assume it's a domain, resolve it to an IP and convert it to decimal, then connect.
There are at least 2 benefits of accepting domain names:
- 1) people with dynamic IP addresses can use things like DynDNS to keep their domain name updated with their IP so they have a persistant server address they can distribute for people to connect to
- 2) providing the domain name is stored where the decimal IP would normally be stored, when servers do have to move or change IP, they don't get killed for a week because they get dropped down to the bottom of the serverlist (like has happened to Sham's a couple of times this year)
Is there any reason it hasn't been done already...?
Thanks,
Dom.