* an IPv4 address or not.
   *
   * <p>IPv6 addresses are <b>coerced</b> to IPv4 addresses before being converted to integers.
   *
   * <p>As long as there are applications that assume that all IP addresses are IPv4 addresses and
   * can therefore be converted safely to integers (for whatever purpose) this function can be used
   * to handle IPv6 addresses as well until the application is suitably fixed.
   *