On Mon, 2005-06-13 at 14:10, Bryan J. Smith wrote:
Does anything exist that has that 'basic logic'? The legacy forms work and scale worldwide because the authority to use names is carefully delegated. If two self-issued names are broadcast on the same network, who wins? What if they are on different subnets and can't see each other but you try to integrate them with such a tool? What if they normally live on different networks but are mobile and eventually collide? I'd really prefer not to let anyone's laptop claim to be the company email server and get away with it.
Which is why you need a _centralized_ layer 2 + layer 3 server to prevent this. If it is the centralized DNS and WINS, then all Windows and UNIX nodes trust it first and foremost, even if a rogue NetBIOS node is braodcasting.
The logic of the server would not only not proxy such a node, but it would quickly report its MAC address as a "problem."
But if it 'knows' which of two nodes claiming a name is the correct one, then it must have been preconfigured in a way that wouldn't have required listening to the broadcast in the first place. How does centralizing the service help resolve a conflict correctly?