Subject: Re: [dhcwg] Reclaiming DoNotAutoConfigure DHCP option code

From: Stuart Cheshire <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 14:55:02 +0100

>Yes.   Although I don't think your explanation of the history of the  
>option is accurate.  My recollection is that it was someone at a  
>university who initially pushed it, not someone at @Home.   It's been  
>a long time, though, so maybe you're right and I'm mistaken.   :'}

The author of RFC 2563 was Ryan Troll. Before he worked at @Home he was, 
as you say, a network administrator at some university where they sold 
Internet access to students with much the same attitude as @Home had 
before it went bankrupt.

The university depended on denial of a DHCP lease being a mechanism to 
deny ALL networking to a device. When IPv4LL came along it meant that 
students could connect a bunch of devices to an Ethernet hub in their 
dorm room, and they'd work even without getting a DHCP lease, and that 
weakened the university's control over those devices bought and paid for 
by the student.

I fully understand and support the right of an ISP or a university (or 
any other individual or organization) to be able to exert control over 
who can use their network resources.

What I don't agree is that DHCP options are the right tool for this. 
802.1X is the right tool for this. It polices access at the point of 
entry into the part of the network that the ISP or university owns, which 
is perfectly legitimate, reasonable, and perhaps most importantly, 
enforcable.

Stuart Cheshire <[email-masked]>
 * Wizard Without Portfolio, Apple Computer, Inc.
 * www.stuartcheshire.org

_______________________________________________
dhcwg mailing list
[email-masked]
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/dhcwg