dsb@ihwpt.ATT.COM (debbie butler) (05/05/88)
Are there any applications or protocols that *require* the use of Ethernet's broadcast mechanism? Do they fail without it? The two that that I'm aware of are ARP and RARP. How about for other implementations? Thanks for any info. Debbie Butler **** NORMAL DISCLAIMER **** AT&T Bell Laboratories Naperville, IL.
jmg@cernvax.UUCP (jmg) (05/06/88)
In article <2520@ihwpt.ATT.COM> dsb@ihwpt.ATT.COM (debbie butler) writes: > >Are there any applications or protocols that *require* the use >of Ethernet's broadcast mechanism? Do they fail without it? Try putting Macs on Ethernet, either by direct Ethertalk connection or a Kinetics FastPath. You will then see lots (too many) broadcasts. They use their own version of arp (AARP), plus also bursts of (identical) broadcasts when trying to establish and defend a unique node number. Then there are the routing (RTMP) packets every 10 seconds. I think that someone in Apple thought that they could treat an Ethernet just like their own LocalTalk, rather than a multi-host multi-protocol medium with hundreds (thousands) of connections. -- _ _ o | __ | jmg@cernvax.uucp | | | | _ / \ _ __ _ __ _| jmg@cernvax.bitnet | | | | |_) /_) | __/_) | (___\ | (_/ | J. M. Gerard, Div. DD, CERN, | | |_|_| \_/\___ \__/ \___| (_|_| \_|_ 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland