On 22 Jan 2001, Guillaume Cottenceau wrote:
> Oliver Stieber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> > I tried an ftp install of cooker at the weekend,
> > the only problems I had were,
> >
> > Couldn't specify a netmask when setting up the network card.
>
> Yes, it's automatically calculated if the magic word "expert" is not
> provided as a kernel parameter, according to Internet's standards:
>
> if first IP number is below or equals 127, sets to 255.0.0.0
> else
> if first IP number is below or equals 191, sets to 255.255.0.0
> else
> sets to 255.255.255.0
>
> I don't think it's wrong?
Yes :-)
The 131.111 and 134.36 blocks were *allocated* as class B's, but are both
suballocated by the universities concerned into multiple subnets - /24 in
the first case (University of Cambridge), a mixture of /23 and /24 in the
latter (University of Dundee).
You can't assume the netmask is even one of /8, /16 or /24 now, let alone
that the netmask is the default for that network range: that system died a
long time ago.
DEFAULTING to the values above is OK, but ASSUMING them is not. I'm
sitting here on 131.111.237.83/24 :-)
> If your network does not respect the Internet standards, try with "expert"
> option at boot time.
It's a dead standard, so don't assume compliance with it!
James.
