Re: Subnetting

Michael Kujawa (kujawa@cs.ucf.edu)
Thu, 31 Dec 1998 18:06:02 -0500 (EST)

Joining multiple networks into one like that is the job of a "bridge".
A bridge is lower level than IP subnetting--it joins them together at the
ethernet level (well, an ethernet bridge does). So you configure the
machines as if they were all on the same wire, giving them netmasks of
255.255.255.0 (or whatever your entire netmask would be.)

This not only saves a few IP addresses, but also allows broadcasts and
any other non-IP routed traffic to work (like IPX, etc.)

Since a bridge should be completely transparent to the network (no IP
addresses), a bridge should be a seperate piece of hardware than your main
server. Ours is a 486 running linux, but you can buy bridges too... I
believe you can hack something together where the bridging linux box also
has IP addresses and get it to work.

-Mike
kujawa@cs.ucf.edu

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