Dynamic IP addresses: changed how

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You are right. It appears that rfc791 was written before the convention of MUST-MAY... came into being.

FWIW, the relevant part of rfc791, while not carrying the MUST indication, makes it clear that TTL values are to be decremented at various points in a datagram's travels, and once the value reaches zero, the datagram is to be discarded. The quote from ftp:--ftp.rfc-editor.org-in-notes-rfc791.txt is

Time to Live: 8 bits

This field indicates the maximum time the datagram is allowed to remain in the internet system. If this field contains the value * ================================ zero, then the datagram must be destroyed. This field is modified * ****====================================== in internet header processing. The time is measured in units of * ================================ seconds, but since every module that processes a datagram must * ============================================================== decrease the TTL by at least one even if it process the datagram in =================================================================== less than a second, the TTL must be thought of only as an upper * =============================================================== bound on the time a datagram may exist. The intention is to cause * ======================================= undeliverable datagrams to be discarded, and to bound the maximum datagram lifetime.

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Lew Pitcher, IT Specialist, Enterprise Data Systems Enterprise Technology Solutions, TD Bank Financial Group

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