New feature: zeroconf networking by default, please test

[Sam Morris]

On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 11:43:46 +0100, Martin Schmeißer wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 13, 2006 at 04:36:50PM +0100, Martin Pitt wrote:
>> Hi all!
>> 
>> Yesterday, the remaining bits of the "Zero-configuration networking"
>> specification made their way to the archive and await hordes of fans,
>> happy users, and of course, bug reports.
>> 
>> The basic idea is that whenever you try to connect to a network and do
>> not get a DHCP response, you will automatically get an IP from the
>> 169.254.0.0/16 range (called 'IPv4 link-layer address'). If other
>> laptops in the room do the same, they negotiate IP addresses to avoid
>> conflicts. Thus every computer is in the same IP network and they can
>> communicate with each other. 
> 
> Is this compatible with other OSes? 
> 
> Ubuntu Wiki says
> "Other operating system correctly use link-local addresses for
> communicating on adhoc networks or local LANs without a DHCP server."
> What are "other OSs"?

Mac OS X and Windows (although Windows does it in a typical half-broken
way that can distrupt existing networks and steal IP addresses from other
systems when it boots up).

-- 
Sam Morris
http://robots.org.uk/

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