Vhost (IRC)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The correct title of this article is vhost (IRC). The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.
vhost, or vanity host, on IRC is a method to mask a user's real IP address to protect privacy and prevent Denial-of-service attacks.
Two types of vhosts exist:
- Old-fashioned bounce, where a real DNS name is registered and setup.
- New-style vhost managed by an IRC Service such as HostServ, where each user can create their own hostname to appear on IRC. Because users can usually supply any hostname to this service, basic checks such as querying DNS entries to prevent using existing, real hostnames, and duplicate vhosts by different users.
