diff -Naur GNUnet/src/server/identity.c GNUnet-20020717/src/server/identity.c
--- GNUnet/src/server/identity.c	Mon Jun 17 04:06:37 2002
+++ GNUnet-20020717/src/server/identity.c	Mon Jun 17 19:22:44 2002
@@ -360,6 +360,7 @@
   IPString ipStringDbg;
 #endif
   int retval;
+  struct hostent *ip; /* for the lookup of the IP in gnunet.conf */
 
   identity->protocol = htons(UDP_PROTOCOL_NUMBER);
   retval = SYSERR;
@@ -371,10 +372,30 @@
     else 
       retval = getAddressFromHostname(identity);
   } else {
-    inet_aton(ipString,&sockInfo);  
-    memcpy(&identity->senderIP,((struct in_addr*)&sockInfo),
-	   sizeof(struct in_addr));
-    retval = OK;
+    /*
+     * inet_aton(ipString,&sockInfo);  
+     * memcpy(&identity->senderIP,((struct in_addr*)&sockInfo),
+     * 	      sizeof(struct in_addr));
+     * retval = OK;
+     */
+    ip = gethostbyname (ipString);
+    if (ip == NULL) {
+      fprintf (stderr, "Couldn't resolve '%s' (h_errno=%d)",
+	       ipString, h_errno);
+      retval = SYSERR;
+    }
+    else {
+      assert (ip->h_addrtype == AF_INET,
+	      "getAddress: h_addrtype is not AF_INET!?");
+      memcpy (&identity->senderIP,
+	      &((struct in_addr*) ip->h_addr_list[0])->s_addr,
+	      sizeof(struct in_addr));
+#if PRINT_HELO
+      print ("Resolved '%s' to '%s'\n", ipString, 
+	     inet_ntoa (identity->senderIP));
+#endif
+      retval = OK;
+    }
   }
   if (retval == OK) {
     if (SYSERR == checkIP(identity->senderIP))