Subject: Re: host address zero - useable?
To: Erik E. Fair <fair@clock.org>
From: Andrew Brown <atatat@atatdot.net>
List: tech-net
Date: 03/10/1999 00:27:08
>>uh...well...not really.  for example, if i had 192.1.0.0/23 assigned
>>to my network, i could use 192.1.1.0 as a host address.  parts of the
>>internet might not be "happy" with it, but it's certainly legal.
>
>I guess I'm not being clear. For any given network & network mask (e.g.
>192.1.1.0/24), when the *host* part is *all* zero bits (i.e. 192.1.1.0),
>NetBSD generates a MAC-level broadcast for packets sent to that address. It
>also does this for the all ones host address (i.e. 192.1.1.255).

ah...well...yes.  that's true.  :)

>I have no problem with one IP address being reserved for broadcast. Two is
>excessive. We should fix this in our OS. I need to go re-read RFC-1122
>about this issue.

i don't think you can win there, unless you can get *everybody* to
reread it.

-- 
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