smurf

Joe Provo - Network Architect jprovo at ma.ultranet.com
Mon Dec 8 17:58:21 UTC 1997



[since Wayne passed the soapbox, I'll just borrow it for a few.
 NB: The following comments are my own, or belong to the last 
 pot of coffee.  Nothing at all to do with the source
 organization, machines, etc; ldisclaim, disavow, etc etc.]

> For anyone who has not, PLEASE DISABLE DIRECTED BROADCASTS!
[snip]

Dear vendors:

        GIVE A KNOB TO DO THIS, ACROSS THE BOARD, IN YOUR GEAR.

I seems like the kicking and shoving needs to start, so:

Hats off to Cisco and OpenRoute/Proteon for having simple knobs
that even customers can be told how to activate in their gear.

Kudos to FORE for at least having the presence of mind to understand
the problem and supply code the supports a knob to shut off the
behavior.

Brickbats to Ascend for supplying that answer "set up filters against
the broadcast address".  Anyone this side of catatonia can produce that
answer; let's have a knob to shut it off either across the board or
interface by interface.  And no, just doing it on current-high-end-box
doesn't cut it; supply a patch to the large installed base of CPE
(pipe50es, etc) or else you haven't eliminated the issue for the
majority of LAN interfaces attached to your product line.

Joe "speaking for myself" Provo

-30-



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