From owner-freebsd-hackers Wed Feb 25 06:41:42 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id GAA24849 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Wed, 25 Feb 1998 06:41:42 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from fledge.watson.org (root@FLEDGE.RES.CMU.EDU [128.2.91.116]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id GAA24729 for ; Wed, 25 Feb 1998 06:41:19 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from robert@cyrus.watson.org) Received: from trojanhorse.pr.watson.org (trojanhorse.pr.watson.org [192.0.2.10]) by fledge.watson.org (8.8.8/8.6.10) with SMTP id JAA26806; Wed, 25 Feb 1998 09:41:06 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 09:39:18 -0500 (EST) From: Robert Watson X-Sender: robert@trojanhorse.pr.watson.org Reply-To: Robert Watson To: sbabkin@dcn.att.com cc: joe@via.net, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: RE: A web-based FreeBSD configuration tool. In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Wed, 25 Feb 1998 sbabkin@dcn.att.com wrote: > > ... i.e., DHCP or IPV6 autoconfiguration ... > > Another option is to do like some print servers: you put manually > the ARP record to your browser machine, then do telnet to > some special port (or not special port, or not telnet but http > connection) and the new machine reads its IP address from the > first received non-broadcast packet. > > I guess it's simpler than a small DHCP server. DHCP has the advantage of allowing arbitrary configuration information to be passed, and already having a defined format for the delivery of most if not all standard IP configuration information. On the other hand, arp is light-weight. :) I prefer to not have the machine sniff the network to find config information -- might get confused if there are multiple routers on the network already (and hence multiple gateways), or multiple IP ranges on the network. This way the configuration server gets to specify what IP it comes up on, preventing conflicts and allowing you to find your new machine once it comes up :). You also know that it has come up as DHCP involves a 2-phase process with acknowledgement -- if you don't get DHCPREQUEST then it didn't like your DHCPOFFER, etc. To prevent the host from accepting normal DHCPOFFERs from its DHCPDISCOVER, we require that the DHCP server provide a vendor tag indicating it is the/a configuration server. ISC has a formidible-looking DHCP server these days. Robert N Watson Carnegie Mellon University http://www.cmu.edu/ SafePort Network Services http://www.safeport.com/ robert@fledge.watson.org http://www.watson.org/~robert/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message