> Why is avoiding a name server roundtrip important to you? There's one
> anyway in links of this type (the hostnames that it links to).
Right, and consulting a name-server every time would double the
round-trips. It can also involve TCP setup around here, and process
context switches with your application (yep, every machine runs a local
name server). All expensive -- and we're trying to keep our objects
light-weight.
Bill