Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!AHWAHNEE.STANFORD.EDU!dcrocker
From: dcrocker@AHWAHNEE.STANFORD.EDU (Dave Crocker)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re:  Using the 4.2 broadcast addr with 4.3 systems
Message-ID: <8908290708.AA20139@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 29 Aug 89 03:29:37 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 15

The issue of the Host Requirements document's stance on zero- vs.
ones-based IP broadcast (now, is everyone clear that we are talking about
the bits that are in the destination field of the IP header, only, and not
the source, and definitely not any of the bits in the ethernet header?)
that Jeff Mogus raises is a sore point.  The HR committee wrestled with
it.

The bottom line is that if you want to configure for the use of zero-based,
then you can, and still be conformant with the HR doc.  The key point is that
under all circumstances, even when you configure for zero-based, you MUST STILL
be able to recognize ones-based.  (Yess, that means that a zero-based net
must have all of its hosts checking both for zeroes in the host field, as
well as all-ones.)

Dave