Re: sysctl should disable ECN by default
On Wed, 5 Sep 2001, T.Pospisek's MailLists wrote:
> On Wed, 5 Sep 2001, Guillaume Morin wrote:
> > Dans un message du 05 sep à 14:37, Florian Weimer écrivait :
> > > From a technical behavior, throwing away packets with unknown protocol
> > > flags is perfectly acceptable in any case and even reasonable in some
> > > environments.
> > I would not call reasonable dropping packets carrying bits of a protocol
> > rated as Proposed Standard by IETF.
> The question is only if devices should be programmed in order to know
> the future and it's potential proposed stadards by the IETF. Mind you I
> don't know if the devices in question (websites, routers etc. droping ECN
> packets) *are* violating a standard that was current at *their* time. The
> routers in particular I think *are* wrong, since they are making decisions
> based on bits that at that time were reserved.
The devices in question *are* violating the standards that existed at the time
they were created. The bits that they're fiddling with are *reserved*. That
means "don't touch". They were in violation of the TCP/IP protocol from day
one, it's just that it's only now that the IETF is making use of those bits,
/as is their right/, that the problem with this equipment has come to light.
> But tell me, in case there's an IMAP client that has some problems with
> the IMAP protocol. Should a Debian box by default *refuse* to talk
> to it or should the default be to try to talk to it (provided that it
> can)?
Are you joking? If someone filed a bug against my package saying I should
make changes to it to accomodate a broken client (equivalent: my IMAP server
sends back a valid IMAP response and this causes the client to segfault), I
would immediately close the bug with a smile and a have-a-nice-day.
Anyone using such broken software should do the right thing, which is one of:
a) get a different IMAP client
b) get an upgrade/fix for the IMAP client so that it's no longer broken
c) sue the vendor for selling a product under false pretenses, with the
goal of achieving either a) or b) above.
The same applies to these POS Zylex routers. There's no reason that Debian
should be covering their asses when they refuse to provide firmware upgrades
to their customers in a timely manner, especially when everyone else on the
Internet has been ready to go with ECN for some time now.
Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer
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