Broadcast-doubts

["Vimal Mathew" <m_vimal@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,
      Our college has a local network with IP-addresses in the 192.168.0.0 
(netmask 255.255.255.0) range. I recently tried out broadcasting a ping with 
a "ping 192.168.0.255" expecting responses from all the computers on the net 
that were onn and connected. To my surprise, only a few of my neighbouring 
computers responded. The kernel of the system I used was Linux 2.2.10. The 
other Linux boxes use 2.0.36 - 2.2.1 kernels. I also got responses from a 
Solaris and a SCO. None of the Windows(95/98/NT) boxes responded. But, the 
most surprising thing was that our Linux proxy-server did not respond(kernel 
2.0.x). So, my questions are : Who is supposed to respond to a broadcasted 
ping? (How) Can you disable your computer's response (without firewalling)? 
There were no firewalling rules enabled on any of the Linux boxes at the 
time of the test.
- -
Thanks in advance,
Vimal Mathew
Model Engg. College
Cochin


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