On 2003-11-29 22:51:04 +0000 Chris Glover chris@glovercc.clara.co.uk wrote:
That is how I remember it working when I did the course in configuring Foundry Routers and switches a few months ago.
Is it normal to dance around the room when there's a Chris Glover ALUG post? That was one of the best explanations of STP I've ever read. (I hope it was accurate. I am not a networking technology expert. :D)
I think part of the reason that failing STP has the nickname "spamming tree protocol" is that "stateful" connections like TCP can throw out the repeated packets, but "stateless" UDP ones can't. Generally, resolving hostnames into IP address numbers is done by UDP, so a spamming tree often kills local DNS servers early on, as new requests get added to the looping old requests and they don't normally spot the repetition. The DNS server responses are also looping, too, adding to the traffic.