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From: davis@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu ("John E. Davis")
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: wildcards in internet adresses
Message-ID: <DAVIS.91Feb1142756@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 1 Feb 91 19:27:56 GMT
Sender: news@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu
Reply-To: davis@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu  (John E. Davis)
Distribution: comp
Organization: "Dept. of Physics, The Ohio State University"
Lines: 25

Hi,

   It seems that more and more systems are using workstations clustered
together somehow such that users can log in to anyone of them with the same
username/password combination due to a 'yellow pages' database.  However, this
causes a problem.

   Suppose, I have a friend on a distant machine with internet address a.1.2.3.
In fact, suppose due to the yellow pages, he can log onto machines a.1.2.3,
b.1.2.3, c.1.2.3,....., z.1.2.3.  Now suppose I want to see if he is on his
system but I do not know all the a,b,c,...z.  Is there anyway to do something
like:

    finger friend@*.1.2.3

Perhaps, finger does not support this.  How can I at least find all the
possible a,b,c,...,z knowing the internet address ends in 1.2.3?

Thanks,
       
--
John

  bitnet: davis@ohstpy
internet: davis@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu