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To: "Serge A. Babkin" <babkin@hq.icb.chel.su>
cc: jhay@mikom.csir.co.za, hackers@FreeBSD.org
From: "Louis A. Mamakos" <louie@TransSys.COM>
Subject: Re: Ethernet-like loopback & IPX 
References: <199607230227.IAA09972@hq.icb.chel.su> 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 23 Jul 1996 08:27:32 +0600."
             <199607230227.IAA09972@hq.icb.chel.su> 
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 00:10:32 -0400
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> > 
> > > > ...
> > > > 
> > > > By the way, I have fixed the bug (in my opinion) in IPX. It allowed
> > > > only one link-level (i.e. Ethernet) address for all interfaces.
> > > > Was it a real bug or feature ?
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > It is a leftover from its XNS days. If you send me the patches for
> > > IPX, I will look it over and commit it.
> > 
> > It's not a bug, but a feature.  Having a single address for your
> > end-station make quite a few other weirdnesses in the protocol stack
> > and application just go away.
> 
> But if you have a single address you need to set it for all
> Ethernet cards or they will not accept the packets with this
> address. The current implementation does not do this and I
> think that it's not a very good idea.

Sure, it's true that the current drivers do not allow the MAC address
to be set on the various LAN interfaces, but this would argue for
fixing the device drivers, and not the protocol design.

While you may believe that the single address per IPX host is an
error, it is fundamental to the protocol's design.  I wouldn't
characterize changing this as "fixing" it, unless it's the same way a
veteranarian "fixes" something.

louie