title: Ping and use three octet ipv4 addresses. Why is it working?
body: <p>By accident I had a typo and discovered that I can ping and ssh to IP address <code>10.8.290</code> ... right one octet is missing. Can someone explain it to me? Is this part of the protocol or some linux-black-magic (I am using Debian)?</p>
  
  <pre><code>user@ws:~$ ping -c3 10.8.290
  PING 10.8.290 (10.8.1.34) 56(84) bytes of data.
  64 bytes from 10.8.1.34: icmp_req=1 ttl=62 time=0.910 ms
  64 bytes from 10.8.1.34: icmp_req=2 ttl=62 time=0.686 ms
  64 bytes from 10.8.1.34: icmp_req=3 ttl=62 time=0.708 ms
  
  --- 10.8.290 ping statistics ---
  3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 1998ms
  rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.686/0.768/0.910/0.100 ms
  user@ws:~$ ssh root@10.8.290
  The authenticity of host '10.8.290 (10.8.1.34)' can't be established.
  ECDSA key fingerprint is 21:bd:7e:fb:1e:6d:1e:c1:e9:11:c0:a9:73:a8:cf:85.
  Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? no
  Host key verification failed.
  </code></pre>