> 	NOTE: sorry I'm not on the port-sparc list.
> 
> 	I have got a trouble report regarding to multicast packets toward
> 	"hme" driver (SparcStation 5-170).  It looks to me
> 	- when !IFF_PROMISC, hme driver does not accept multicast packets
> 	  even if we join the multicast group.
> 	- when IFF_PROMISC, all packets will be passed to the upper layer
> 	  and we can accept multicast packets.
> 
> 	Now, I'm very curious if this is an IPv6 problem or not.  Are there
> 	anybody have success experience in running IPv4 (or some other layer 3)
> 	multicast application over hme driver?

I don't know anything about the driver, but I know a few things about 
Ethernet and multicast.

The proper way to address a multicast packet on Ethernet, is to map the 
last 23 bits of the multicast IP address to the last 23 bits of a 48 bit 
Ethernet multicast address range 01:00:5e:00:00:00 to 01:00:5e:7f:ff:ff.
This applies to both IPv4 and IPv6.  (Note that there is no 1-1 mapping 
from IP address to MAC address.)

However, since many switches get problems when interfaces on more than 
one port listen to the same MAC address, multicast is often sent using 
the Ethernet broadcast address instead.  Quick and dirty.  

If your router maps the addresses the proper way and the driver depends 
on the qiuck and dirty way (as the oposite may have a bad effect on 
switches), then you will get these kinds of problems.  Try to figure 
out which ethernet address the multicast packets are sent to, and see if 
this could be the problem.


-- 
Sturle        Frydenlund Bayer -- ikkje berre ein frukostdrikk!
~~~~~~        http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~sturles/     St. URLe