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StilesCrisisyesterday at 11:15 PM9 repliesview on HN

>Two hosts on the same subnet can reach each other without leaving the LAN.

Barring "very buggy software," when is this false?


Replies

dipierroyesterday at 11:19 PM

Port- or Client-isolation on Ethernet switches and Wi-Fi access points respectively. Often seen in corporate environments and (properly configured) guest networks.

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wmfyesterday at 11:23 PM

There are recent "client isolation" features that prevent P2P communication. Some hosting providers also block customers on the same LAN from attacking each other.

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rcxdudeyesterday at 11:21 PM

Switches and firewalls can do all kinds of things. Probably the most common case is that public/guest wifi networks often have client isolation set up so that different devices on the network can't contact each other. Same subnet, but only access to the gateway and the internet in practice.

(Also can happen if ARP is not working correctly, which can be a right PITA to debug).

mitxelayesterday at 11:26 PM

LAN spread across sites with a WAN in the middle of it. But that's why I said in my comment that a LAN isn't actually a real thing.

justinliviyesterday at 11:20 PM

I feel like the better of this is maybe "will" instead of "can"

Waterluvianyesterday at 11:18 PM

Yeah… I feel like “falsehoods X believe about Y” need to omit anything a reasonable X would consider to be a bug.

Edit: fair point. Maybe not.

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taneqtoday at 12:11 AM

Most consumer wifi routers I’ve used have a setting to prevent peer-to-peer traffic. Whether this still counts as being on the same subnet is kind of a philosophical question.

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Hikikomoriyesterday at 11:22 PM

Some tunnel that extends the subnet somewhere else. Guess it depends on how you define lan.

basilikumyesterday at 11:19 PM

VPNs

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