Best way to determine if a domain name would be a valid in a “hosts” file?

Question

The Windows Hosts file allows you to associate an IP to a host name that has far greater freedom than a normal Internet domain name. I\'d like to create a function that dete

Answer 1

These methods are not reliable as you get some response even if the domain name is fake like "fasdfasdfasd.com".

The best way is to send a WebResponse and wait for the response from the domain. Here is the complete code and explanations of this process (long code snippet so not copy-pasting here).

http://www.dotnetfunda.com/articles/show/1072/validating-domain-name-in-aspnet

Thanks

Answer 2

How about the System.Uri.CheckHostName() method?

private static bool IsValidDomainName(string name)
{
    return Uri.CheckHostName(name) != UriHostNameType.Unknown;
}

Why do the work yourself?