[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#6707) Announce server on LAN

["Per I. Mathisen" <per@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 2 Nov 2003, John Bauman wrote:
> > > > It could probably also be 3 or 5, depending about how you define
> > > > "LAN".
> > >
> > > And that is the point. If we hardcode it in the code we have to choose
> > > a good value. A not hardcoded solution would be better. Is this
> > > possible?
> >
> > Do you want TTL as a runtime parameter to the client and server? I've
> > never used any software that requires you to do that.
> > I can't think of another way to set the TTL.
>
> One method is to gradually expand the TTL (from 2 or so to around 6) if
> there are not many servers found and possibly at user request.

Too arbitrary. For our purposes, 2 will be more than enough, IMHO. For
very large LAN parties or university campuses, it might be worth raising
this value, but that might also raise some eyebrows and attract some
unwanted attention from sysadmins with too much time on their hands.

Is it possible to respond from the server with the same TTL as the client
uses, ie autodetect the client's TTL? Otherwise having a customizable TTL
in the client is much less useful. If this is possible, you could have an
input field for TTL in the client and have the server respond with the
same TTL. (I guess we could put the TTL into the broadcast packet.)

If that is too much bother, then let's just pick a number. We can change
it later when we get user feedback.

  - Per