Vhost (IRC)

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vhost, or virtual 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 are necessary such as querying DNS entries to prevent using existing, real hostnames, and duplicate vhosts by different users.

Most modern IRC networks support creating vhosts for client connections. In order to successfully create a vhost on an IRC network, the following observations must be made:

• The vhost in question must have an A record which points to the IP address from which the connection to the IRC network is being made.
• The Reverse DNS for the IP address must point back to the vhost.

See also

• Hostmask