The in.aspd service (called by inetd) is deactivated by default. To activate it, execute, as root, $ update-inetd --enable asp Be aware that this may be a security risk. You are recommended to firewall off the asp port (27374/udp) from remote machines using (e.g.) ipchains or iptables. asp(1) can be used from scripts, a few examples: $ number="`192.168.1.1-5 | asp -f plato`" $ echo $? 0 $ echo $number 192.168.1.1 $ number="`echo 2.2.2.2 | asp -f plato`" $ echo $? 1 $ echo $number $ # no match And a few comments from the author: > COMMENTS: > > Try to restrict the range of the addresses to those that the searched > host could actually have: this saves bandwidth. > > Metaip addresses are allowed only on the last part of the input > addresses: if the possible ip addresses belongs to different networks, > use as many metaip addresses as needed; this is because allowing > metaip addresses as xxx.yyy.*.* or even *.*.*.* would not be a good > idea... > > Stenio Brunetta