std::string dns(std::string a){ struct hostent *host; WSADATA wsaData; if (WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(1, 1), &wsaData) != 0) { return "Winsock failed to start up... what did you expect?"; } if ((host=gethostbyname(a.c_str())) == NULL) { // get the host info return "Could not get to host for some reason."; } return std::string(inet_ntoa(*((struct in_addr *)host->h_addr))); }