Subject: Oppose: LL23 Don't configure needless LL addresses

From: Stuart Cheshire <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 14:01:20 -0800

Robert Elz wrote:

>A node with any address assigned for a link can communicate with
>all other devices on that link

This is only true if all devices on the link are correctly configured 
with compatible addresses, subnet masks, routing tables, etc.

It has been said that making devices work reliably even in the face of 
accidental misconfiguration is outside the charter of this Working Group.

If this is true, then we may just have to accept that this is a point 
where industry and the IETF will have to agree to disagree, and accept 
that our solutions will be broadly similar but will differ in a few minor 
details.

The consumer electronics companies need interconnects that are as 
reliable and fail-safe as the venerable red, white and yellow analog RCA 
cables. When a customer connects their rack of Hi-Fi and television 
equipment using Ethernet cables, they need to know that it will 
definitely work, not, "It will work some times, and fail some times, and 
here are the reasons why..."

Stuart Cheshire <[email-masked]>
 * Wizard Without Portfolio, Apple Computer, Inc.
 * www.stuartcheshire.org