diff -up tcp_wrappers_7.6/socket.c.patch7 tcp_wrappers_7.6/socket.c
--- tcp_wrappers_7.6/socket.c.patch7	1997-03-21 19:27:25.000000000 +0100
+++ tcp_wrappers_7.6/socket.c	2008-08-29 09:45:12.000000000 +0200
@@ -52,7 +52,8 @@ static struct hostent *gethostbyname_dot
 char   *name;
 {
     char    dot_name[MAXHOSTNAMELEN + 1];
-
+    struct hostent *hp;
+    
     /*
      * Don't append dots to unqualified names. Such names are likely to come
      * from local hosts files or from NIS.
@@ -61,8 +62,12 @@ char   *name;
     if (strchr(name, '.') == 0 || strlen(name) >= MAXHOSTNAMELEN - 1) {
 	return (gethostbyname(name));
     } else {
-	sprintf(dot_name, "%s.", name);
-	return (gethostbyname(dot_name));
+        sprintf(dot_name, "%s.", name);
+        hp = gethostbyname(dot_name);
+	if (hp)
+	    return hp;
+	else
+	    return (gethostbyname(name));
     }
 }