Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!yale!husc6!bu-cs!kwe
From: kwe@bu-cs.BU.EDU (kwe@bu-it.bu.edu (Kent W. England))
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: ICMP's & IP src addrs
Summary: ICMP is special wrt broadcasts
Message-ID: <24915@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 16 Sep 88 16:17:59 GMT
References: <23634@hi.unm.edu> <8809151450.AA23101@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <23635@hi.unm.edu>
Reply-To: kwe@buit13.bu.edu (Kent England)
Followup-To: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Distribution: na
Organization: Boston Univ. Information Tech. Dept.
Lines: 15

In article <23635@hi.unm.edu> cyrus@hi.unm.edu (Tait Cyrus) writes:
>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.
>
	No, no, no.  ICMP messages are special, because they are error
messages.  They must be treated carefully and conservatively.  You
should not respond to a broadcast with an ICMP message, even if the
source of the broadcast is an ICMP message.
	I refer you to the upcoming Host Req'ts RFC and/or Bob Braden,
Craig Partridge, et al for further details.