Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!udel!brahms.udel.edu!garrett
From: garrett@brahms.udel.edu (Joel Garrett)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re: MacTCP won't connect to hosts in other domains.
Summary: Same here!  Any solutions?
Message-ID: <16494@brahms.udel.edu>
Date: 4 Dec 90 18:15:01 GMT
References: <1863loganj@yvax.byu.edu> <34032@netnews.upenn.edu>
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 49

In article <34032@netnews.upenn.edu> tony@scotty.dccs.upenn.edu (Anthony Olejnik) writes:
>
>I, too, had a problem with MacTCP not being able to connect to host
>in other domains.
>
>It seems that even though I had a particular default gateway 
>specified in MacTCP, it was listening to RIP packets and
>using that info instead of the specified address of the IP router.

I have been encountering similar problems on our local subnet.  There is always
some yahoo in the eng. college who just bought a new workstation and just plugs
it in and turns it on without making sure things aren't configured correctly,
especially the network stuff.  Ok, in these peoples' defense, there is no
official campus-wide policy (at least one that everyone knows about) about
getting connected onto the various networks.

At any rate, our local MacTCP host, which is running a beta-test version of
BeaverGate, has been going a little crazy at inopportune times, and with the ai
of an ethernet monitor, I was able to see the behaviour that Tony mentioned.
For whatever reason, the MacTCP host was listening to (invalid) RIP packets
that caused it to come up with a new default route which wouldn't forward any
packets for the system, essentially killing it.

Does anyone know of a way to keep MacTCP (1.01 is what I have) from listening
to RIP packets?  On our own local worstations, I have been able to maintain
order by disabling RIP services on our local machines by commenting out the
appropriate lines in the /etc/services file and not letting routed run on the
systems (all we need is the default route to our ethernet's gateway onto the
campus proteon backbone)  Maybe someone's come up with a patch to mactcp or
maybe the next version will address this?

I agree that the bad RIP packets shouldn't be there in the first place, but
I can't afford to have our MacTCP hosts go south every time somone else makes
the same mistake (which they invariably do...), especially when the people are
in another department, which makes it difficult for me to get the problem
straightened out.  (How would you feel if the you've been using your workstation
for several weeks without evident problems, and someone calls you on the phone
to tell you that it is set up wrong and needs to be corrected, especially
someone from some other department that you've never heard of before, and not
the campus communications people?)

Please, if anyone has any additional info on this, please send me mail. I will
post a summary of any info I receive.

					Thanks!

				Joel Garrett

				garrett@brahms.udel.edu


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