Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets.

From	Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.python
Subject	Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets.
Date	2011-04-20 00:00 +0000
Organization	PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC
Message-ID	<iol7no$ah2$2@reader1.panix.com> (permalink)
References	<iol1tv$8dn$1@reader1.panix.com> <mailman.590.1303256405.9059.python-list@python.org>

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On 2011-04-19, Dan Stromberg <drsalists@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 3:21 PM, Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>> I'm have problems figuring out how to receive UDP broadcast packets on
>> Linux.
>>
>> Here's the receiving code:
>>
>> ------------------------------receive.py-------------------------------
>
>> But, the receiving Python program never sees any packets unless the
>> _source_ IP address in the packets is on the same subnet as the
>> receiving machine.
>
> This is just how broadcasts work.
>
> Normally, you take your subnet mask and "bitwise and" it with the IP
> addresses of the sending and receiving machines.  If the results match
> for two such pairs on two different machines, then the broadcast
> should be visible, given appropriate code.

That certainly looks like what's hapenning, but it seems very
counter-productive to me.

If I send a packet to ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff--255.255.255.255, it's because
I want everybody on the Ethernet segment to receive it.  If I wanted
only people on a particular subnet (e.g. 10.0.0.0/8) to receive it, I
would have sent it to the subnet broadcast address (e.g. 10.255.255.255).

> However, some routers have the ability to pass packets from one subnet
> to another.  I believe this is called a "helper", at least in the
> Cisco world, and must be configured specially.

There are no routers or firewalls involved -- just a dumb Ethernet
switch.

It seems I'm going to have to use raw sockets to do what I need to do.
That's exactly what I was trying to avoid by using UDP: I'm replacing
a proprietary (non IP) MAC-level protocol that was implemented using
raw sockets.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! I'm young ... I'm
                                  at               HEALTHY ... I can HIKE
                              gmail.com            THRU CAPT GROGAN'S LUMBAR
                                                   REGIONS!

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Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-19 22:21 +0000
  Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Irmen de Jong <irmen.NOSPAM@xs4all.nl> - 2011-04-20 01:13 +0200
    Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-19 23:21 +0000
      Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Irmen de Jong <irmen.NOSPAM@xs4all.nl> - 2011-04-20 01:40 +0200
        Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Dan Stromberg <drsalists@gmail.com> - 2011-04-19 16:52 -0700
          Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-20 00:09 +0000
            Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-04-20 10:53 +1000
              Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-20 01:15 +0000
                Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-04-20 11:24 +1000
                Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-20 03:05 +0000
                Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Dan Stromberg <drsalists@gmail.com> - 2011-04-19 20:12 -0700
                Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-20 14:31 +0000
                Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-20 15:42 +0000
                Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Dan Stromberg <drsalists@gmail.com> - 2011-04-19 20:16 -0700
                Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-20 14:21 +0000
                Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Dan Stromberg <drsalists@gmail.com> - 2011-04-20 18:35 -0700
                Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-21 14:22 +0000
                Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Heiko Wundram <modelnine@modelnine.org> - 2011-04-21 08:22 +0200
            Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2011-04-19 23:35 -0400
              Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-20 14:23 +0000
            Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Sherm Pendley <sherm.pendley@gmail.com> - 2011-04-20 06:07 -0400
              Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam@whitemice.org> - 2011-04-20 06:20 -0400
                Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-20 15:37 +0000
        Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-19 23:54 +0000
          Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Heiko Wundram <modelnine@modelnine.org> - 2011-04-20 08:45 +0200
            Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-20 14:30 +0000
              Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Heiko Wundram <modelnine@modelnine.org> - 2011-04-20 16:53 +0200
                Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-20 15:24 +0000
                Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-20 15:32 +0000
              Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-20 15:50 +0000
  Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Dan Stromberg <drsalists@gmail.com> - 2011-04-19 16:40 -0700
    Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-20 00:00 +0000
      Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-04-20 10:32 +1000
  Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Thomas Heller <theller@ctypes.org> - 2011-04-20 12:18 +0200
    Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-20 14:35 +0000
  Re: Problem receiving UDP broadcast packets. Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-04-20 22:25 +0000

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