Who (What?!) is "http://1.1.1.1/bmi"?

Question

I'm not sure if this is the place to ask but I found some pages who contain links in them that start with "http://1.1.1.1/bmi".

Who or what is 1.1.1.1? or maybe http://1.1.1.1/bmi has a meaning more than just 1.1.1.1?

Answer 1

Well, 1.1.1.1 is an IP address. As far as who it is - it's public address space that bad internet citizens tend to use as a placeholder:

inetnum:        1.1.1.0 - 1.1.1.255
netname:        Debogon-prefix
descr:          APNIC Debogon Project
descr:          APNIC Pty Ltd
country:        AU
admin-c:        AR302-AP
tech-c:         AR302-AP
mnt-by:         APNIC-HM
mnt-routes:     MAINT-AU-APNIC-GM85-AP
mnt-irt:        IRT-APNICRANDNET-AU
status:         ASSIGNED PORTABLE
changed:        hm-changed@apnic.net 20110922
source:         APNIC
role:           APNIC RESEARCH
address:        PO Box 3646
address:        South Brisbane, QLD 4101
address:        Australia
country:        AU
phone:          +61-7-3858-3188
fax-no:         +61-7-3858-3199
e-mail:         research@apnic.net
remarks:        ++++++++++++++++++
remarks:        + Address blocks listed with this contact
remarks:        + are withheld from general use and are
remarks:        + only routed briefly for passive testing.
remarks:        +
remarks:        + If you are receiving unwanted traffic
remarks:        + it is almost certainly spoofed source
remarks:        + or hijacked address usage.
remarks:        +
remarks:        + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address_spoofing
remarks:        + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_internet_registry
remarks:        +
remarks:        ++++++++++++++++++
nic-hdl:        AR302-AP
tech-c:         AH256-AP
admin-c:        AH256-AP
mnt-by:         MAINT-APNIC-AP
changed:        hm-changed@apnic.net 20110822
source:         APNIC

As the remark states, it's assigned for testing because it's practically useless as real address space, because of clueless people using it as a placeholder or an internal addressing scheme. There's an interesting article about the traffic it gets here.

Probably someone being lazy and putting a placeholder URL on a page..?