Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!PARK-STREET.BBN.COM!brescia
From: brescia@PARK-STREET.BBN.COM (Mike Brescia)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Dumb vs. smart host routing
Message-ID: <8805172214.AA04977@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 17 May 88 13:13:49 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 18


    <from kasten@mitvma.mit.edu>
     a certain well known computer company has made a network package for PC's
     and PS/2's that does not understand ICMP redirect. 

This is an interesting turn.  What if they try to send to a gateway that does
not forward packets which needed redirect.
 a. host sends to gw A
 b. gw A redirects host to gw B
 c. gw A now has no more buffers, drops pkt
 d. host ignores redirect
 e. go to a

The IP spec does imply some effort be made to forward a redirected packet, but
I interpret the priority to be higher to get the redirect to the host, and
only secondary that the packet be forwarded.

Mike Brescia,
BBNCC gateway group