Squid and local multicast network

I have 7 Squid caches running under BSDI 2.10 and all on the same IP
subnet. I wish to configure them as siblings and it seems reasonable to set
up a local multicast network. However, after a couple of hours surfing the
web I'm not much nearer being able to set this up.

Multicast support is built into the kernel, but do I need to use mrouted if
I'm not routing traffic beyond my local subnet? Can I choose any address
from the 224.0.0.0/4 block given that I'm not routing this network, or is
there a block for private multicast networks (is that what 224.0.0.0/24 is
for)?

I've tried setting up rm-ps-squid-multicast.rmplc.co.uk to be 224.0.0.1 and
then using this in squid.conf (on the host rooster) ...

mcast_groups 224.0.0.1

cache_host rm-ps-squid-multicast.rmplc.co.uk multicast 8080 3130 ttl=64
cache_host adder.rmplc.co.uk sibling 8080 3130 multicast-responder
cache_host rattle.rmplc.co.uk sibling 8080 3130 multicast-responder
cache_host barracuda.rmplc.co.uk sibling 8080 3130 multicast-responder
cache_host elk.rmplc.co.uk sibling 8080 3130 multicast-responder
cache_host whale.rmplc.co.uk sibling 8080 3130 multicast-responder
cache_host eagle.rmplc.co.uk sibling 8080 3130 multicast-responder

I've also added a route ....

route add -net 224.0.0.0 -netmask 240.0.0.0 -interface 194.238.50.8

where 194.238.50.8 is the IP address of the single ethernet port in the
server.

I've also tried using 224.0.0.2 with no luck.

If I ping 224.0.0.1 I get responses from all the other hosts, but Squid
just doesn't seem to be responding to multicast requests.

I realise this is slightly off topic, but any advice would be gratefully
received.

Cheers,
Simon.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Rainey Direct Line: 01235 823238
Principal Internet Development Engineer Fax: 01235 823424
RM Internet for Learning E-mail: srainey@rmplc.net
New Mill House, 183 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 4SE, England
Received on Wed Aug 27 1997 - 06:51:10 MDT