Re: broadcast over loopback

[Dan Lukes]

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote, On 12/05/02 20:41:

Is there a reason that the broadcast flag is not set on the loopback
interface? It seems like it might be useful to allow applications that
use broadcast to continue to work even when loopback is the only
interface.

Your application shouldn't use broadcast unless it knows it run in broadcast capable environment or it shouldn't refuse to run when it cannot send a packet - as it doesn't care where it's packets are sent to.


BTW, the broadcast are handled in mad way in TCP/IP stack already - the destination of 255.255.255.255 is silently rewritten to network broadcast and sent over first interface (if it is broadcast capable) or it is routed (often to default route). You can't send the non-network broadcast to interface of your choice (unless you use bpf).



Dan

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