From owner-freebsd-bugs Sat Aug 12 07:17:55 1995 Return-Path: bugs-owner Received: (from majordom@localhost) by freefall.FreeBSD.org (8.6.11/8.6.6) id HAA26257 for bugs-outgoing; Sat, 12 Aug 1995 07:17:55 -0700 Received: from grunt.grondar.za (grunt.grondar.za [196.7.18.129]) by freefall.FreeBSD.org (8.6.11/8.6.6) with ESMTP id HAA26248 for ; Sat, 12 Aug 1995 07:17:34 -0700 Received: from grumble.grondar.za (grumble.grondar.za [196.7.18.130]) by grunt.grondar.za (8.6.11/8.6.9) with ESMTP id QAA13177; Sat, 12 Aug 1995 16:16:50 +0200 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by grumble.grondar.za (8.6.11/8.6.9) with SMTP id QAA29321; Sat, 12 Aug 1995 16:16:49 +0200 Message-Id: <199508121416.QAA29321@grumble.grondar.za> X-Authentication-Warning: grumble.grondar.za: Host localhost didn't use HELO protocol To: freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.org, joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de (Joerg Wunsch) Subject: Re: 950726-SNAP lp0/nfs install bug ? Date: Sat, 12 Aug 1995 16:16:49 +0200 From: Mark Murray Sender: bugs-owner@FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > > How? Given an IP address these days, you cannot infer a default netmask > > like you used to with the class {ABC}'s. Putting in a number may be more > > dangerous than warning the user that it is missing. > > The current scenario falls over, and the user has to interpret the > complaint from ifconfig(8) on the Alt-F2 screen himself. I think this > is inacceptable. (ifconfig is being called like > > ifconfig ed0 inet xxx.yyy.zzz.www netmask > > if there has not been entered any netmask value.) > > I believe most smaller corporate networks and all `private' (192.168) > networks are still masked plainly 0xffffff00. All private are 192.168? NO! This is probably a block that has been given to your service provider. Ours is 196.7, and our close competitors are 196.11 and 196.4. We ask our users to use a netmask of 0xfffffff0 for hysterical raisins. > Jordan, when i think more about it, don't _calculate_ a default mask. > Traditional class A and B networks are always subnetted. So perhaps > 0xffffff00 would be the most practical default value. I would tend to agree that this is a _much_ better solution, but I would document that the user should also find out what his netmask is when he gets an IP address and use _that_ if supplied. -- Mark Murray 46 Harvey Rd, Claremont, Cape Town 7700, South Africa +27 21 61-3768 GMT+0200 Finger mark@grumble.grondar.za for PGP key