Bridges

[Peter Jeremy]

On Thu, 2005-Sep-29 08:44:09 +0930, Wilkinson, Alex wrote:
>What is the difference between a "per-host MAC address" and a "per-NIC
>MAC address" ?

All NICs have a unique MAC address.  This address can be over-ridden by
the host if it needs to have the same MAC address appear on multiple
interfaces.

Of the two cases I mentioned: DECnet changes all MAC addresses to one
beginning AA0055 where the low bits are the host's DECnet address.
This removes the need for IP's ARP since the source host can determine
the destination host's MAC address without needing to ask the network.

Some versions of Solaris with some NICs (definitely Solaris 8 with
Cassini NICs) associate a MAC address with the host, rather than the
NIC.  I'm less certain of the rationale for this.

-- 
Peter Jeremy