On Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:56:38 -0500 (EST) Greg Smith <gsmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Fri, 11 Jan 2008, Steve Atkins wrote: > > > You may well need netmasks to configure your interface, but there's > > absolutely no need for them to identify an IP endpoint, which is all you > > need to identify the destination the packet is going to, and that is the > > most common use of IP addresses. > > Technically you can't ever send a packet unless you know both the endpoint > and your local netmask. As the sender, you're obligated to determine if > the destination is on your local LAN (in which case you send it there) or > if it goes to the gateway. That's similar to a routing decision, but it's > not quite--if you don't have to look in a routing table, it's not actually > part of routing. Not sure what your point is here. Sure, you need the netmask but not of every IP address you send to, only for the IP/network that you are on. That's a grand total of one netmask per interface that you need to know. And you don't store it in your database. -- D'Arcy J.M. Cain <darcy@xxxxxxxxx> | Democracy is three wolves http://www.druid.net/darcy/ | and a sheep voting on +1 416 425 1212 (DoD#0082) (eNTP) | what's for dinner. ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 3: Have you checked our extensive FAQ? http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faq
