MAC address

[Pierre Fortin]

On 21 Sep 2004 14:36:28 GMT Grant wrote:

> Is there a good way to determine if an address is already in
> use?

Depends... is there a guarantee there is no switch between you and the
server?  If not, listening, then active probing might provide _an_ (not
_the_) answer...  What if the other machine is currently offline?  If
there _is_ a switch _and_ a duplicate MAC, that would make for interesting
problems (switch constantly swaps out-port for MAC that appears to be
moving back and forth between ports), mostly resulting in a confused IP
stacks, and a retransmission avalanche is possible.

-30- as this is no longer Python related.