This is a sanity check. An IP packet has a TTL field of 8 bits. that means a count of 256. That means an IP packet can traverse 256 hops before it is dropped? isn't that a too large value for real world?
Please correct me if I understand wrong.
Thank you all!!
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There are 10 kinds of people in this world....Those who understand binary and those who don't
The TTL counts down from some initial value to zero. Yes, it is possible to create a packet with a TTL of 255, but what would be the point? Most packets have a starting TTL much less than that.Originally Posted by jas_atwal
I was always under the impression that most packets had it set to 256 as it's only used to stop infinite routing loops which are relatively rare afaik. I don't think it has much practical use in modern networks.
Per the current RFC 1700. The current recommended default time to live (TTL) for the Internet Protocol (IP) is 64.
