SmartFTP does not resolve hostnames using "hosts"

When a program uses Winsock to resolve a hostname to an IP address, it checks the hosts file in the System32Driversetc directory. I have a few hosts listed there that don't appear in any DNS environment.

However, SmartFTP is one application that does not resolve those. I have to use the IP addresses manually.

Is there any reason for this? Does SmartFTP do its own resolving?

Thank you,

Dave

I agree with GroovBird - why does SmartFTP fail to resolve entries in the hosts file?

I must say, this is the first IP-based application I've ever seen that behaves this way - is there a way to enable it please?

Thanks,
Mike

Maybe this should be enabled as an option if it is not implemented (I have not tested it). I think of this as a security feature to avoid trojans on your machine spoofing the name resolution by "overwriting" DNS entries with entries in the hosts file.

Hi, sorry but for me works fine.

[12:12:58] SmartFTP v1.5.991.12
[12:12:58] Resolving host name "aokromes.com"
[12:12:58] Connecting to 172.26.0.2 Port: 21


C:>nslookup aokromes.com
Server: minerva.ttd.net
Address: 194.179.1.100

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: aokromes.com
Address: 217.127.***.***

Interesting...

After some messing about I've found that SmartFTP won't resolve names like "MAC_Deo" or "MAC_Deo.com" in the hosts file, but it's happy with "MACDeo" and "MACDeo.com" - i.e. it doesn't like the underscore character.

I don't know if this is a limitation of SmartFTP, or lower down in the IP stack... although I've been using the "MAC_Deo" format in apps like Firefox and PuTTY without problem.

SmartFTPs behavior is absolutely correct, though very strict: "_" is not a valid character in hostnames, use "-" instead.

I thought that might be the case, but appreciate the clarification - I'll update my hosts file.

Thanks for your help,
Mike