Don't do IPv6 AAAA lookups if there is no IPv6 address configured on this machine. From the getaddrinfo() man page: "If hints.ai_flags includes the AI_ADDRCONFIG flag, then IPv4 addresses are returned in the list pointed to by result only if the local system has at least one IPv4 address configured, and IPv6 addresses are only returned if the local system has at least one IPv6 address configured." It's my understanding that this flag is non-standard (a GNUism perhaps), which is why it's surrounded in #ifdefs.