[TriLUG] OT: how can this URL resolve?

[Christopher L Merrill]

I didn't think this was a legal URL without a top-level domain:
   http://3400329509/
but it worked in my browser
(the whole URL was http://3400329509/paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/index.php,
the site for a paypal scammer in Indonesia)

pinging 3400329509, much to my suprise, resolved to
   202.172.233.37

nslookup resulted in:
   $ nslookup 3400329509
   Server:  rlghnc-dns-cac-06.nc.rr.com
   Address:  24.25.5.51
   *** rlghnc-dns-cac-06.nc.rr.com can't find 3400329509: Non-existent domain

Also, a whois lookup fails...so I'm assuming there is some numeric
decoding applied by the network stack to turn it into an IP address...
anyone know what that decoding is?

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Chris Merrill                  |  http://www.webperformance.com
Web Performance Inc.

Website Load Testing and Stress Testing Software
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