Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!columbia!douglass!dupuy
From: dupuy@douglass.columbia.edu (Alexander Dupuy)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: broadcast pings
Summary: There are some uses (but not many)
Message-ID: <5903@columbia.edu>
Date: 24 Sep 88 18:22:47 GMT
References: <8809191225.AA06010@radc-lonex.arpa> <8809241430.AA22093@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Sender: news@columbia.edu
Reply-To: dupuy@douglass.columbia.edu (Alexander Dupuy)
Followup-To: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Organization: Columbia University Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 20


As someone pointed out earlier, if responses to broadcast ICMP packets are
disallowed, we'll have to come up with a new way of determining the network
mask.  But it is true that if all the hosts on a network respond, you have
instant congestion.

Perhaps a compromise is in order.  Leave the requirement that hosts not respond
to broadcast ICMP packets, but make a specific exception for gateways (what
does the gateway requirements RFC say about this?) saying that they may respond
to properly formed broadcast ICMP packets.  Presumably, the number of gateways
on a net is much less than that of hosts, so the congestion problem is not too
great.  And if you have a need to determine your netmask, you ought to have a
gateway on the net (what's the point of subnetting a standalone net?).

Is this too simple to really work?

@alex
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