: Zapper, what are your thoughts about this warning and
: recommendation from Jim Stone?
: -NW

It is something I might consider implementing.

Optionally, however, Readers can address this themselves by adding an entry in their 'hosts' file that matches our domain name with our IP, similar to:

45.79.195.246 rmn rumormillnews.com www.rumormillnews.com

Browsers and other Internet applications check the hosts file before sending a query to Internet DNS.

One DRAWBACK to this approach: If RMN moves and has a new, different IP address, the entry in your hosts file that has the original IP will cause your browser to reach the wrong location or to return a "cannot find that site" message. If in doubt, put a hash mark (#) in front of that hosts file entry. Your browser will then send a query to Internet DNS and hopefully take you to the new correct IP address.

Most modern operating systems have Internet tools that can be operated manually to query DNS. One such Linux tool is called "dig". It will send a query to DNS and display the response that comes back, including the IP address, as:

dig rumormillnews.com

; <<>> DiG 9.11.5-P4-5.1+deb10u2-Debian <<>> rumormillnews.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 37930
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;rumormillnews.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
rumormillnews.com. 899 IN A 45.79.195.246

;; Query time: 45 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.1#53(192.168.1.1)
;; WHEN: Thu Jan 14 00:27:15 EST 2021
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 62

'ping' can also show the IP address, as:

ping rumormillnews.com
PING rumormillnews.com (45.79.195.246) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from rumormillnews.com (45.79.195.246): icmp_seq=1 ttl=55 time=2.86 ms
64 bytes from rumormillnews.com (45.79.195.246): icmp_seq=2 ttl=55 time=3.75 ms
...

--hobie / Zapper

********************************************************************************