Re: Windows/NT to break the Internet?

["William S. Duncanson" <william () neosoft com>]

At 14:47 10/16/96 UTC, Hank Nussbacher wrote:
> How long can the Internet last if every customer needs to get a /24?
> That is what appears to be with Windows/NT 4.0.  This server has
> lately become very popular with small customers that install an NT
> server and a few PCs and want a connection.  ISPs up to know would assign
> a /26 or perhaps a /27 or even a /30 to SOHOs like this.  Windows NT 4.0
> when defining the address range as well as the DNS and inverse - only has
> space in the form for 3 octets.  They assume you are a /24 or larger.  I 
> have had customers come back to me and say that they can't even enter
> the 255.255.255.224 mask I gave them on their system since the NT doesn't
> support it.  Let alone the problems with inverse subnetting that there
> is a draft RFC out there that almost everyone follows.  Seems to have
> slipped by the people in Oregon, though.
> -----snip-----
> Am I missing something here on WinNT installs?  Or is Microsoft gonna
> cause the IP address space to expire sooner than we had planned?

You're missing something.  On the DNS issue, I would agree with you that
their implementation has some serious shortcomings.  On the other issue, I
think there's something wrong with your customers.  I have a computer on my
home network running Windows NT 4.  It's not a /24 network, it's a /29, and
NT4 accepts a .248 netmask without any problem.

--
William S. Duncanson
NeoSoft Operations
william () neosoft com
(888) NEOSOFT or (713) 968-5800

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