John,
I called it the "Limited Broadcast Address" because that is what Richard
Stevens calls it in his book, "TCP/IP Illustrated Volume 1", which I had
thought was considered the BIBLE amongst networking professionals.
Secondly, I am aware that no router in the world forwards this address. It
says so in the book, and it would be rediculous to do so in the first
place.
My problem relates to obtaining the IP address of a digital radio which is
connected to the same physical network as the host, but which you do not
know it's IP address. You have no other means of finding out its IP
address, i.e. no look inside the box. It does support SNMP, however you
need an IP address to read its configuration. Hence, the thought about
using the limited broadcast address and an ICMP Echo Request message.
As for VxWorks being cautious, no I think it is more of an oversight on
their part. I'll have to ask them why....
Thanks,
Rick.
-----Original Message-----
From: John Stracke [SMTP:francis(_at_)ecal(_dot_)com]
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2000 11:36 AM
To: rascheri(_at_)electra(_dot_)rsc(_dot_)raytheon(_dot_)com
Subject: Re: Digital Radio Configuration Question
"Richard C. Ascheri" wrote:
I wrote a simple program that sends an ICMP Echo Request message to the
limited broadcast address of 255.255.255.255.
That's not the limited broadcast address; that's the universal broadcast
address, the one that would send a packet to every host in the Internet. I
say "would" because it's such an obviously bad idea that essentially every
router in the world comes out of the box refusing to forward it. Most host
software will respond to it, though; VxWorks is probably being cautious.
--
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|John Stracke | http://www.ecal.com |My opinions are my own.|
|Chief Scientist |=============================================|
|eCal Corp. |Do not suspect that I am not human. |
|francis(_at_)ecal(_dot_)com| |
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