Xref: utzoo comp.protocols.tcp-ip:4045 comp.dcom.lans:1561 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!ll-xn!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!cornell!rochester!udel!princeton!njin!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!hedrick From: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu (Charles Hedrick) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip,comp.dcom.lans Subject: Re: Strange Network Traffic (Booting a Sun) Message-ID:Date: 8 Jul 88 03:42:53 GMT References: <4356@fluke.COM> Followup-To: comp.protocols.tcp-ip Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 11 In at least some versions of the Sun software, the systems ended up using an Internet address that was their system serial number. This was done during early stages of kernel operation, before the system knew its Internet address. Typically the serial numbers were small, so you'd get an address that looked like 0.0.x.y. In some releases, this entry was never removed from the routing table. Once the system came up, it was interpreted as a default route. I'm not sure whether these things are still happening under current releases. This is a moderately dangerous practice. 0.0.x.y should be interepreted as meaning "this net, host x.y". It is certainly possible that there could already be an x.y on the current network. I'd be very surprised if this practice continued into release 4.0