Re: [dylug] Networking question

abhijit wrote:

> My question is if we have (or develop) an application
> layer that understands MAC addresses( which is
> unique), do we still need IP addresses?


No you dont.

But it would be a highly specialized solution tailored to your specialized 
needs, one that would only work (mostly) with your particular network, and 
would be difficult to manage, extend and maintain.

Yes, it would work without IP addresses, and I see the following severe 
shortcomings to the solution:

   - Very Very Low Level 
   - Very Difficult to maintain (You are completely responsible -- you 
   won't get much OS support at the higher level) 
   - Very Difficult to extend (Look... tomorrow if you decide to change 
   or add a new node to your n/w -- or use some other networking tech -- your 
   MAC addresses will change -- I think I may be a little wrong here.... please 
   correct me... and the solution may not work as expected) 

(I guess i went a lil overboard with the very's :))

In general, as Kary and Gud pointed out, when you move to IP addresses, you 
abstact away from hardware details, and work in a "generic" manner -- hence 
a solution based on IP addresses is much more flexible and powerful... also 
it opens up a whole world of other possibilities.

Hey Abhi.... why exactly do you want to do this anyway? Maybe you have 
something specific in mind?

And hey... Abhi... wanna give IPv6 a try?! ;)) Well... Linux has been 
supporting it since as long as I know... Its gonna be the default in 
Longhorn i guess as well... :)) BTW... anyone here who's setup a IPv6 LAN? 
I'd like to try that sometime :)) 

luv
Debu