A broadcast address is a network address used to transmit to all devices connected to a multiple-access communications network. A message sent to a broadcast address may be received by all network-attached hosts.
Ethernet
Broadcast is possible also on the underlying data link layer in Ethernet networks. Frames are addressed to reach every computer on a given LAN segment if they are addressed to MAC address . Ethernet frames that contain IP broadcast packages are usually sent to this address. Ethernet broadcasts are used, among other purposes, by Address Resolution Protocol to resolve IP addresses to MAC addresses. ==IPX networking==
IPX networking
Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) allows broadcast. A packet with network number of FFFFFFFF is sent to all networks available. When the node number is specified as FFFFFFFFFFFF, the packet is intended to be received by all hosts in the network. ==AppleTalk==
AppleTalk
The AppleTalk protocol allows broadcast. When the node ID is specified as 255, a packet is sent to all networks available. ==See also==