Booting from server over network

[gary at svx.sv.dg.com]

I'll trot my ignorance out as a possible solution to your slow net boot.
We have a sub-netted 128 address - let's call it 128.1.2.3 where 2 is the
subnet and 3 is the host address - netmask 0xffffff00. When we did

b le(0,0,3) -a

The net began booting 128.1.0.3 at the speed of dark. We tried it a few
times and it did the same thing. Then it hit me that tftp had no notion of
our netmask - it was broadcasting all over our 128.1 net and eventually
getting a reply ("all over" being about 4000 miles in this case). When we
did

b le(0,0,203) -a

it booted in about 4 seconds - from a 3/50. Now it was asking for
128.1.2.3!

Gary Bridgewater, Data General Corp., Sunnyvale Ca.
gary at sv4.ceo.sv.dg.com or 
{amdahl,aeras,amdcad,mas1,matra3}!dgcad.SV.DG.COM!gary
No good deed goes unpunished.