bootp

[Ben Pfaff]

Adam <bsdx@looksharp.net> writes:

[...some good arguments why to disable ICMP echo replies to
broadcast addresses...]

I suspect that the reason that Linux 2.2 has such replies turned
on is that it claims 100% compliance to the RFCs for TCP/IP, and
RFC 792 that defines ICMP makes no exceptions for broadcast
addresses.

> You obviously champion Linux and GNU software because they are
> good things for the computer community.

No.  I champion Linux and GNU software because I value my
freedom and I think that others should value it too.

> You use it because its good for you, and you tell others to use
> it because you think it would be good for them too.

Sometimes I do speak in words like that because people tend to
understand them better than abstract talk about "freedom".  But
freedom is the real reason these days.

> Why would you not do something like disabling broadcast pings 
> that is good for the other 2^16 IP's on the internet?  And if you did it,
> wouldn't you want to tell others to so they could do it too? 

*shrug*  It's a good thing to do but it's not my fight to fight.
I'd rather write software than lead a crusade.  FWIW, I agree
with you that it's a good thing to do, but I still hold that
individuals won't make a difference.  If you could talk the
kernel maintainers into making no-broadcast-echo-replies the
default, then *that* would make a real difference.
-- 
Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human.  At best he
is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe and not
make messes in the house.
                -- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love"