netmask setting

[Jim Zeek]

Were having a problem with our network of suns. It appears that in 4.0.3
sun changed the networking code so that it would change its netmask
whenever it received a netmask reply off the net, even if the request had
a bogus netmask (0). This locks up the ethernet on the machine and only an
"ifconfig "interface" netmask "netmask value"" will get it back. And if
you are running yp you must have a window logged on as root as su will not
work.

This only happens with 4.0 and later machines. Also once the zero netmask
gets set on a few machines it spreads as machines get rebooted and send
out netmask requests.

Sun says it is fixed in 4.1 but that is a long way off and we are getting
stung now. If anybody as seen this or has a fix, I would like to hear from
you. I'm really hoping for a patch that would turn off this "feature".


					Jim Zeek
					System Administrator
					Network Equipment Technologies
					{pyramid,pacbell}!unet!zeek
					415 780-5412