On 3/8/24 17:26, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
It is not/for/ multicast IP, it/uses/ multicast for name resolution.
In a nutshell [1], it sends a "DNS" request to the local network asking
"who is called Fritz here?", and Fritz answers with its IP. So sys-non-
admins don't have to set up a name server.
To amplify on that, it is used in situations where there is no DHCP server.
IPv4 clients will then automatically assign themselves an address from
169.254.X.X/16 range (X.X is derived from the MAC address)
They then multicast their hostname and IP address to everyone else on
the LAN using mDNS.
It is not a Microsoft only standard. It is defined in RFC 3927, "Dynamic
Configuration of IPv4 Link-Local Addresses."
It is used on a wide variety of hosts including Linux.