[lwip-users] OT: Is the AutoIP range a special case IP address range?

[Bill Auerbach]

I just found out through testing that the PC with a NIC in the 192.168/16 subnet (netmask 255.255.255.0) will ping and connect to devices on the physical network in the AutoIP range (169.254/16).  This is on a WinXP PC.  I find the ARP table contains AutoIP addresses and I can ping and open connections to the device at the AutoIP address.

Is this something that is expected to occur?  Is it specific to Windows?  I’ve not come across any RFC that mentions that this ‘bridging’ should or can occur.

If anyone knows anything about this I’d appreciate whatever you can tell me.

Thanks,

Bill