--- hosts_access.c
+++ hosts_access.c
@@ -328,8 +328,6 @@
 	return (YES);
     } else if (STR_EQ(tok, "KNOWN")) {		/* not unknown */
 	return (STR_NE(string, unknown));
-    } else if (tok[(n = strlen(tok)) - 1] == '.') {	/* prefix */
-	return (STRN_EQ(tok, string, n));
     } else if (STR_EQ(tok, string))		/* exact match */
 	return (YES);
 #ifdef INET6
@@ -337,11 +335,31 @@
     {
 	/* For simplicity we convert everything to IPv6 (or v4 mapped) */
 	struct in6_addr pat, addr;
-	int len, ret, prefixlen=128;
-	char ch, token[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN+1], *mask;
-	
+	int len, ret, prefixlen=128, nof_periods = 0;
+	char ch, token[INET6_ADDRSTRLEN+1], *mask, *ptok = tok, *addition;
 	len = strlen(tok);
-	if (*tok == '[' && tok[len - 1] == ']') 
+	if (tok[(n = strlen(tok)) - 1] == '.') {	/* prefix */
+	  while ((ptok = strchr(ptok, '.')) != NULL){
+	    nof_periods++;
+	    ptok++;
+	  }
+	  switch(nof_periods){
+	  case 1:
+	    addition = "0.0.0/8";
+	    break;
+	  case 2:
+	    addition = "0.0/16";
+	    break;
+	  case 3:
+	    addition = "0/24";
+	    break;
+	  default: 
+	    tcpd_warn ("Wrong prefix %s", tok);
+	    return (NO);
+	  }
+	  snprintf(token, sizeof(token), "%s%s", tok, addition);
+	}	
+	else if (*tok == '[' && tok[len - 1] == ']') 
 	{
 		ch = tok[len - 1];
 			tok[len - 1] = '\0';