Re: broadcast on network

On 30 Jan 2006, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.networking, in article
<1138629451.339891.239160@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, manish wrote:

>is there any way to broadcast data on the internet ( to all the systems
>around the world ). ?

In theory, it is possible. In real life, it is impossible. See section
12 of the Unix-and-Internet-Fundamentals-HOWTO, then read through the
Linux Network Administrator's Guide which should be on your system if
you were using Linux. You can find the howto and guide at the LDP

http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/howtos.html
http://tldp.org/guides.html

>if no, how do the architecture restricts such an attemp ?

Nearly all networking is 'point to point' - from one host to another. There
are two other modes, 'multicast' (RFC1301), and 'broadcast' (RFC0919).

0919 Broadcasting Internet Datagrams. J.C. Mogul. Oct-01-1984.
(Format: TXT=16382 bytes) (Also STD0005) (Status: STANDARD)

1301 Multicast Transport Protocol. S. Armstrong, A. Freier, K.
Marzullo. February 1992. (Format: TXT=91976 bytes) (Status:
INFORMATIONAL)

Broadcasts are only used on "local" networks, and are mainly of a
network operations nature - an example is ARP. Most routers are sanely
configured to block broadcasts to avoid 2.2 billion people trying to
talk on the same telephone at the same time. See also RFC1812.

1812 Requirements for IP Version 4 Routers. F. Baker, Ed.. June 1995.
(Format: TXT=415740 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1716, RFC1009) (Updated by
RFC2644) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)

Multicast is used for situations where a data transfer is destined for
more than one destination. Rather than spewing all over, multicast is
directed to those who have indicated that they want to receive the data.
This involves extra routing protocols (MBone) for longer distances, and
this are not all that common.

Why would you think there is a need to broadcast data everywhere?

Old guy
.