[OT-mask]

[Ian Goldberg]

On Tue, Feb 24, 2004 at 07:28:20AM -0500, Gregory D Hough wrote:
> Bad guys often wear masks to hide their true identity. "I believe" the  
> same is true with badguysonline. So my question is when if ever should  
> there appear a 255 octet in a host address, and is it wise to do  
> anything but DROP these?

A 255 is a perfectly valid address.

> As I understand it, a packet sent to 192.168.1.255 will be seen by all  
> hosts on the 192.168.1.0. As I understand it, 192.168.0.0/16 is non- 
> routeable on the internet along with a few other reserved network  
> blocks. I'd like to learn how this pertains to the wide area network.  
> Here is just one example:
> 
> 68.95.134.255 resolves to:
> adsl-68-95-134-255.dsl.rcsntx.swbell.net

Right now, pinging this address works fine, and I don't get the multiple
(DUP!) replies I would expect if it were a broadcast address [actually,
I'd probably expect no reply at all, since broadcast pings are usually
firewalled].  So I would bet that that network is a /20 or something
like that, with:

NETWORK=68.95.128.0
NETMASK=255.255.240.0
BROADCAST=68.95.143.255  [Note: 143 (10001111), not 134 (10000110)]

and 68.95.134.255 is just an ordinary address on that network.

   - Ian
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