import socket


def _address_family(address):
    """
        Attempt to determine the family of an address (or hostname)

        :return: either socket.AF_INET or socket.AF_INET6 or socket.AF_UNSPEC if the address family
                 could not be determined
    """
    if address.startswith('[') and address.endswith(']'):
        return socket.AF_INET6
    for af in (socket.AF_INET, socket.AF_INET6):
        try:
            socket.inet_pton(af, address)
            return af
        except (ValueError, AttributeError, socket.error):
            continue
    return socket.AF_UNSPEC