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From: MAP@LCS.MIT.EDU (Michael A. Patton)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: managing addresses
Message-ID: <8912071252.AA22638@gaak.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Date: 7 Dec 89 12:52:09 GMT
References: <8912070607.AA10004@gaak.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 44


   Date:         Wed, 06 Dec 89 16:58:58 EST
   From: Brian Holmes <BHOLMES%WAYNEST1.BITNET@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu>

   I've only received 2 replys and both have only been for
   IP addresses and names, which of course is done with
   the domain names file.  No responses on how people are
   handleing ethernet and token ring addresses.

Just to get this straight.  Ethernet and Token Ring addresses are
managed by: (choose one depending on your view)
	Xerox / IEEE / Manufacturer / Hardware / ARP
You don't manage them yourself, in fact you can't (*) assign them,
they are fixed.  I manage a network of around 500 hosts and don't know
or have record (+) of any of the EtherNet addresses.  I've never found
this to be much of a problem.  I have no desire to try and track this,
I'd need to be informed and spend time rechecking any time any one of
those 500 machines was serviced, and that includes every time a random
undergrad (or worse, the technically inclined administrator) turns 2
PCs off and swaps boards to see if he can figure out why his program
isn't working.

	    __
  /|  /|  /|  \		Michael A. Patton, Network Manager
 / | / | /_|__/		Laboratory for Computer Science
/  |/  |/  |atton	Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are a figment of the phosphor
on your screen and do not represent the views of MIT, LCS, or MAP. :-)

(*) Well, I'll admit there is some hardware that lets you and DEC used
to do it, but that is the exception and can cause more problems than
you could imagine if you haven't experienced it.

(+) Unless of course one of those 2 inch square yellow sticky papers
is left from configuring BootP when a gateway is first installed.  I
do occasionally have to write them down, for reasons like BootP.  But
I deal with them and promptly toss the paper.  It would be easier to
determine it from first principles than to look it up, if I ever need
it again.

BTW, We don't maintain our Name/Address mapping in the DNS file.  It's
a generated file from a nightly update run, as it says at the top
		"Editing it is futile".