PING to Broadcast Address May Get Response

ID: Q137421

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5, 3.51
Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51

If the PING command is used to a broadcast address, some devices will respond.

The following RFC section discusses pinging a broadcast address:

RFC-1122 Section 3.2.2.6 Echo Request/Reply

"An ICMP Echo Request destined to an IP broadcast or IP multicast address MAY be silently discarded.

DISCUSSION:
This neutral provision results from a passionate debate between those who feel that ICMP Echo to a broadcast address provides a valuable diagnostic capability and those who feel that misuse of this feature can too easily create packet storms."

Windows NT 3.5 computers do not reply to these PING Echo Requests. Novell 3.12 Servers send an Echo Reply.

Additional query words: prodnt tcp/ip

Keywords : ntprotocol nttcp NTSrvWkst
Version : 3.50 3.51
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type :