"Only 254 prefered allowed"

Dear Mailinglist,

we try to use spread/wackamole for one of our linux firewalls. We managed to
make both addresses (internel and external of the firewall) to change even
in case of only one interface beeing down, but we still have a problem to
find the right prefered parameter.
We do have a class b network on the internal interface and a class c network
on the outside interface . Our conf file looks like this:

Spread = 4803
SpreadRetryInterval = 5s
Group = wack1
Control = /var/run/wack.it

# Die bevorzugte Netzwerkkarte
Prefer {
	eth0:172.16.253.49/16
	eth1:193.17.4.200/24
}

# ALLE Virtuellen Interfaces   
VirtualInterfaces {
	eth0:172.16.253.51/16
        eth1:193.17.4.202/24	
}

Arp-Cache = 90s

# Beim Ausfall werden benachrichtigt
Notify {
	# Let's notify our router:
	eth0:172.16.1.1/32
	eth0:172.16.253.50/32
	eth0:172.16.253.44/32
	eth0:195.145.130.24/32
	eth1:193.17.4.201/32
	Arp-cache
}

When we start the system we receive hundreds of errormessages "Only 254
prefered allowed"  and no preferation works at all. We need to define the
main firewall as prefered machone to use, because the cpu power on this box
allows us to run an ids system in addition (snort) to the firewalling
activity. In case of using the backup hardware we can't run the ids, but all
other functions will continue to work and this is more than acceptable for
us.

How is the right syntax for this prefered option or are there other ways to
configure this prefered server scenario.

Thanks for your help.


Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best regards

Jens Neumann



Jens Neumann
ZEDA GmbH & Co. KG , Dept. ZDT
Mühlenweg 17-37
D - 42270 Wuppertal
Email: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>