Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>>>> I do not want to specify a default gateway, the printer's
>>>> configuration does not allow me to leave the "default gateway:"
>>>> field blank. Is there an ip address I can enter that will be
>>>> interpreted as "no default gateway?"
>> [...]
>>> Why not use 127.0.0.1 ?
>
>> There's a potential for that to cause a nasty loop
[...]

> It's expensive to write a new TCP/IP stack, so the printer most likely uses
> some off-the-shelf TCP/IP stack which should work just fine.

That's a good point, although it would be difficult to find out the
implementation details, and very difficult to test its internal
routing behavior .

> As a matter of fact, even if the stack is really stupid and does end up
> sending packets to itself, the "looping" shouldn't cause any problem.

Well, it depends on how efficiently it processes packets, how much
processing power it has, and how frequently it sends packets out.

I would still recommend against this configuration unless it's
documented to work by the manufacturer.

----Scott.