Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!hc!hi.unm.edu!cyrus
From: cyrus@hi.unm.edu (Tait Cyrus)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: ICMP's & IP src addrs
Message-ID: <23635@hi.unm.edu>
Date: 15 Sep 88 21:20:05 GMT
References: <23634@hi.unm.edu> <8809151450.AA23101@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: cyrus@hi.unm.edu (Tait Cyrus)
Distribution: na
Organization: U. of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Lines: 25

In article <8809151450.AA23101@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> tmallory@PARK-STREET.BBN.COM writes:

>Flame:  An ICMP echo to a broadcast address should get no response!  What an
>incredibly obnoxious thing to do!

What do you mean it should get no response?  It is a legal broadcast
that all machines should reply to.

My reason for pinging to the broadcast address is to aid my network
debugging.  The ping tells me several things.  Which machines are on
our ever expanding net (known and unknown), who is running trailers
(arp table), and the hardware address of many machines.

I especially like it because I can quickly tell what new machines are
on our net by the fact that there is no name associated with the IP
address in the arp table.  If you can tell me a better way to do this,
I am all ears.

>Tracy Mallory
>BBNCC

Tait Cyrus
University of New Mexico
Dept. Electrical and Computer Engineering
cyrus@hi.unm.edu