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From: sy.Ken@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU (Ken Rossman)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Broadcast Storms
Message-ID: <12329849264.136.SY.KEN@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Date: Thu, 27-Aug-87 11:24:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: CU20B.12329849264.136.SY.KEN
Posted: Thu Aug 27 11:24:52 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Aug-87 12:11:34 EDT
References: <8708270922.AA06419@topaz.rutgers.edu>
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Organization: The ARPA Internet
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  X.Y.255.255 is the new form.  X.Y.0.0 is the old form.  Unfortunately it
  is easier to convince new software to use the old than old software to
  use the new.  So until everybody updates, it may be easiest to stick with
  the old format.  The decision is in fact made in the kernel, not rwho.
  You use ifconfig to choose the broadcast address.  Ifconfig is a program
  that primarily does system calls to set up various options in the kernel.

I guess the reason I asked about this was because we've seen those
broadcast storms here a number of times, and so apparently have other
sites, yet in answer to this problem, folks keep saying the "fix" is to
kill the rwho daemon, as though rwho was directly responsible for net
storms.  Rwho is doing its job properly -- it's the kernal that's goofing
up.  Rwho ain't the only thing around that's gonna cause ARP broadcast
anyway, is it?  /Ken
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