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From: JNC@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: more oddities from the swamp
Message-ID: <12208388829.19.JNC@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Date: Wed, 21-May-86 03:22:47 EDT
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Posted: Wed May 21 03:22:47 1986
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	Sorry, my bogometer just tripped when I got to the phrase
'routed is the protocol that gateways are supposed to use to announce
themselves'. First, this protocol is not documented anywhere. Second,
it's not an official Internet protocol. Third, it is a gross violation
of IP design philosophy to have hosts know about a gateway routing
protocol for any reason, let alone just to find out where gateways
are.
	The Internet Engineering committee has talked about a new ICMP
message for hosts to find gateways; I'll try to get this written up
soon.

	I sympathize with your problems with Unix and broadcast
addresses.  We get shafted by the same thing; the upward compatability
with all the nonstandard stuff and gratuitous functionality (such as
non-subnet hosts fowarding packets to 128.6.4.0) in 4.2 is an
incredible drag.
	It is to prevent confusion about exactly who is being
broadcast to that I maintain that the 'default' broadcast address to
use is all 1's, rather than use net.1's or subnet.1's, etc. It's much
harder to lose using all 1's; the only possible meaning is 'local
wire'.
	Unfortunately, it's way to late to put the 4.2 genie back in
the bottle. Maybe we should all quit and become wood carvers?

	Noel
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