Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!ucsd!ucbvax!UC.MSC.UMN.EDU!slevy
From: slevy@UC.MSC.UMN.EDU ("Stuart Levy")
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: default broadcast address
Message-ID: <8807101600.AA02208@uc.msc.umn.edu>
Date: 10 Jul 88 16:00:57 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 15

The difficulty (for UNIX systems at least) with choosing 255.255.255.255
(or 0.0.0.0 or {net,constant,constant}) as a broadcast address arises
when you try to put broadcast-based applications on multi-homed hosts or gw's.
To broadcast on a particular net -- or for that matter on all nets -- what
address should be used?  Using the {net,subnet,constant} form at least ensures
that every interface has a distinct broadcast address and that a route exists
for that address.

It might be possible for applications to send to {net,subnet,constant}
and for the IP layer to detect that a broadcast was intended and translate
it into some other broadcast address before transmission.  This would
be pretty disgusting, however, and is anyway not done by any software I know of.

Do any of the sites choosing 255.255.255.255 as a standard broadcast address
have a solution?