Re: Unusual use of IP Broadcast Address

[Bob Braden <[e-mail]>]

  *> 
  *> Bob,
  *> 
  *> Wendy said that her PCs don't necessarily know that they are on subnet
  *> 129.83.14, so they wouldn't be able to recognize 129.83.14.255 as a
  *> broadcast address they should accept.
  *> 
  *> Upon re-reading her message, I realize that I may also have misunderstood
  *> what she was proposing when I wrote my response.  The references to a
  *> modified version of routed seem to imply that the "broadcast" packets will
  *> be originated from machines other than the Sun that has the serial links to
  *> the PCs.  If that's true, what she is proposing is significantly at odds
  *> with the IP architecture (treating an all-ones broadcast as a directed
  *> broadcast to a remote subnet known as a special case by the routers).  IP
  *> multicast would satisfy her requirement without bending the architecture.
  *> 
  *> Steve
  *> 
  *> 

Nice try, but her machines don't recognize IP multicast addresses, either.

Bob