Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!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: Dynamic IP address assignment
Summary: research AppleTalk first
Message-ID: <26245@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 24 Nov 88 14:58:54 GMT
References: <26200@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <8811231554.AA05701@pinocchio.UUCP>
Reply-To: kwe@bu-it.bu.edu (Kent England)
Followup-To: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Organization: Boston Univ. Information Tech. Dept.
Lines: 27

In article <8811231554.AA05701@pinocchio.UUCP>
> bzs@pinocchio.UUCP (Barry Shein) writes:
>
>
>I don't think an IP release protocol in general would work since
>hitting the power switch on the machine will probably release the IP
>address in a dynamic environment, at least eventually. Just as well
>to just have a way to replace any stale address when needed rather
>than remove ones when they're not, storage issues are usually minor
>and aging occurs anyhow, particularly as caches fill.
>
>Some sort of challenge might help (eg. I just received a packet which
>says that IPx is at a different hardware address, before updating my
>table send a packet to the old address and if it responds do something
>like alert the console.) No new protocol would be needed, just a ping
>or something. It still leaves open the problem of my jumping in and
>being an imposter for your system if I notice you down, an easy thing
>to do with a program and no manual intervention.
>
>	-Barry Shein, ||Encore||

	Anyone working on dynamic IP address assignment ought to have
a look at AppleTalk dynamic address assignment.  See "Inside
AppleTalk".  Of course, AppleTalk takes dynamic assignment to
services, names, and addresses which is one of the reasons it doesn't
scale up well.  But, no need to reinvent the wheel for internet
address assignment.