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List:       freebsd-hackers
Subject:    Re: Ethernet-like loopback & IPX
From:       "Serge A. Babkin" <babkin () hq ! icb ! chel ! su>
Date:       1996-07-23 4:37:52
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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.

I'm not shure that the ability to change the MAC address accidentally
is good. For example if you configure an interface for IP and then for IPX
you'll get lots of troubles if it sent any ARP response with the
old MAC address.

> 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

Nope. Netware (the "native" protocol implementattion) has different MAC
addresses on different interfaces. Or did you meant the FreeBSD
implementation ?

> characterize changing this as "fixing" it, unless it's the same way a
> veteranarian "fixes" something.

IMHO it _must_ be fixed in any of two ways: by allowing several addresses
or by setting the MAC addresses of cards. But in its current state it
just doesn't allow to have more than one IPX interface.

-SB

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