Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!deimos.cis.ksu.edu!uxc!iuvax!pur-ee!mentor.cc.purdue.edu!mace.cc.purdue.edu!dls From: dls@mace.cc.purdue.edu (David L Stevens) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Aaaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!? Message-ID: <2455@mace.cc.purdue.edu> Date: 25 May 89 18:28:27 GMT References: <10806@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> <1115@garcon.cso.uiuc.edu> Reply-To: dls@mace.cc.purdue.edu (David L Stevens) Organization: PUCC UNIX Group Lines: 20 The netmask comes from an ICMP NETMASK broadcast request. It's documented in detail in RFCs 950 and 792, available via anonymous FTP from sri-nic.arpa, for those interested in details. Any unmodified Berkeley host should answer netmask requests, though this is contrary to the RFC; only *gateways* are supposed to. If your NeXT is on a network with some such beast, as mine is, the netmask will appear as if by magic, and is reported in the boot output. Diskless hosts generally get their IP addresses using the RARP protocol, but it requires a RARP server on the same physical network; there's no magic and you have to set up the RARP server's -> mappings. The BOOTP protocol (RFC 951) also provides for hosts to discover their IP addresses as well as a boot image. NeXT may very well use the NetMaNAgEr to build a RARP server but it's easier and more likely that it saves the IP address on disk. I know mine does, in /etc/hostconfig, but I'm not "managed" by any other NeXT. Your mileage may vary. Use only as directed. -- +-DLS (dls@mace.cc.purdue.edu)