Nathan Ward <nanog@daork.net> wrote:
ARP is still required on ethernet links, so that the MAC address can be = discovered for use in the ethernet frame header. /31 does not change the = behavior of ARP at all.
<soapbox> That is why I hate Ethernet with a passion. Ethernet should be for LANs only; using Ethernet for WANs and PTP links is the vilest invention in the entire history of data networking in my opinion. My medium of choice for PTP links (WAN) is HDLC over a synchronous serial bit stream, with a V.35 or EIA-530 interface between the router and the modem/DSU. Over HDLC I then run either RFC 1490 routed mode or straight PPP (RFC 1662); in the past I used Cisco HDLC (0F 00 08 00 IP header follows...). My 4.3BSD router (or I should better say gateway as that's the proper 80s/90s term) then sees a PTP interface which has no netmask at all, hence the near and far end IP addresses don't have to have any numerical relationship between them at all. No netmask, no MAC addresses, no ARP, none of that crap, just a PTP IP link. </soapbox> MS