Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari!uflorida!haven!ncifcrf!nlm-mcs!usenet
From: usenet@nlm-mcs.arpa (usenet news poster)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Directed broadcasts??
Message-ID: <11545@nlm-mcs.arpa>
Date: 23 Feb 90 22:59:26 GMT
Reply-To: gish@host.UUCP ()
Organization: National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Md.
Lines: 20

Would someone please outline how to perform a directed broadcast--
that is, a broadcast to a net located one or more hops away?
Are there severe limitations or restrictions on the use of directed
broadcasts, such that directed broadcasts are impractical?  e.g.,
are routers usually configured to block off-site broadcast packets?

Any source code examples would be greatly appreciated.

BTW: the reason for asking this question (aside from my naivety) is
that I am investigating providing network services on machines whose
network identities may change (although the subnet probably wouldn't);
and I'd like to avoid having to update potentially thousands of
distributed copies of client applications when these changes do occur.
I'd be very interested if perhaps y'all have some better suggestions
than directed broadcasts.

Warren Gish
National Center for Biotechnology Information
National Library of Medicine
gish@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov