"hostname kernel: martian destination ae8b0000 from 71f7ae8b", dev eth0
can somebody tell me what the meaning of this is ?!
A martian packet comes from a bogus IP address, i.e. one "not of this world". For example, there are some blocks of IP addresses that are reserved for systems not connected to the Internet (e.g. 10.0.0.0). If a machine is claiming to use such an address and can find a router that is willing to believe it, the result would be a martian packet. There are other possible causes, but this one has been the most common in my experience. (Our campus net is a flat class B and this used to happen quite often.) If by chance you're behind a masqueraded network, have a look at http://www.linuxprogramming.com/mirrors/LDP/LDP/LG/issue36/tag/78.html About three quarters of the way down the page is a list of steps you might want to consider in order to keep martians off your local net. --steve Steven Kirby University of Georgia kirby@parallel.park.uga.edu Free the mallocs!