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c#network-programmingdnsipreliability

Better to use IP addresses or hostnames in code which relies on the network?

If you are programming an application which is heavily using the network (e.g. pings, dns resolves, etc), is it better to use IP addresses in the code (e.g. if making a folder path on a server - //192.183.181.182/test/test1 for example), or hostnames?

I am assuming IP addresses as they tend to be static in the enterprise, and hostnames can have aliases etc to a single IP address. Is this a valid reason to prefer IP addresses?

Thanks

Solution

  • The problem with using hardcoded IP addresses is that if you need to change it, you need to change the code, while if you use hostnames, if you need to change it, you can change where the hostname points, without touching the code :)