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Here is the situation. I recentely got a second wireless router that I connected to my original wireless router via an ethernet cable in order to extend the reach of my wireless network across my house. I learned that I had to disable DHCP and give the router an IP address that would not be assigned to any other device. Because my original router had 192.168.1.254, I chose 192.168.1.255 for the second one. Since I am not much of a network wiz, I was happy to see that it actually worked like a charm. Afterwards, I learned that 192.168.1.255 is actually a bad choice because it is the default broadcast address on a network. The problem is that nowhere can I find a detailed explanation of why it is a bad choice, i.e. what are the practical implications of using it for the other access point? Could you give me specific use cases that exemplify the problems? Thx :)
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In case you want to type your own answer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv4#Addresses_ending_in_0_or_255 ;)
– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2015-01-05T22:18:00.687Thanks, but it doesn't really answer my question sufficiently (and in an easy to understand manner). Also, the pararaph almost made it sound like it is not a problem at all. What I want to know is: which problematic situations could arise in a real world scenario? – Robert Gutke – 2015-01-05T22:22:11.747
Hmm, a router that doesn't check the Net Mask when you set the device IP address and limit the assigned address to valid numbers. Might want to tell us the brand and model number so we can avoid it like the plague. Unless you're using some oddball CIDR Mask on the internal addressing. – Fiasco Labs – 2015-01-05T22:22:26.650
The second router is an AirTies Air5452. – Robert Gutke – 2015-01-05T22:24:31.587
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because it is the default broadcast address on a network
- Completely depends on your subnet mask. If you happened to have a/22
mask it would be a perfectly valid address. – Zoredache – 2015-01-05T22:41:23.100Could you provide some practical use cases that exemplify what problems might arise, @Zoredache? – Robert Gutke – 2015-01-05T22:50:42.890
FYI: I just saw that it is a /24 subnet mask. – Robert Gutke – 2015-01-05T22:51:25.873
"The problem is that nowhere can I find a detailed explanation of why it is a bad choice" -- Sort of reminds me of the (supposedly true) story of the guy that ordered for his car the personalized license plates "NONE", and then started to receive parking ticket for cars that had no license plates.
Salient response
Try to connect to this router's web server using this "broadcast address". Anything you send to this web server (e.g. login/password) is also broadcast to every host in your subnet. – sawdust – 2015-01-05T22:53:57.4771So, what is your subnet mask then? – Daniel B – 2015-01-05T23:39:08.507