While trying to understand if it is possible for me to have more than one IP address in my computer (I don't even have one that is static at the moment), I found the discussions on this thread which seems to say:
1. Does this mean that it is possible to have multiple IP addresses mapped to a single MAC address in linux for not in BSD? Or that BSD achieves it by methods other than by setting up subinterfaces?
2. For whatever rationale or in the complete absence of it, if I have one computer (a desktop) and have two or more static IP addresses, can I make forum posts from one IP while sending and receiving email messages from another IP address? (I understand that a Virtual Machine would make it possible, but the question is not about hardware or network virtualization)
Not only is this possible, it is very common. A single network card can do this in a couple of ways; it can answer for multiple IP addresses with a single MAC address (assigning multiple addresses to a NIC in most operating systems will do this), or with multiple MAC addresses (virtualization platforms behave in this way).
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this is called ip aliasing and how you set it up is dependent upon your Operating system..
A network card may have multiple IP addresses. This is a concept called multihoming. There are other variants of multihoming as well.
Linux is the only OS I know of that makes you setup a subinterface. Windows and the BSDs do not.
1. Does this mean that it is possible to have multiple IP addresses mapped to a single MAC address in linux for not in BSD? Or that BSD achieves it by methods other than by setting up subinterfaces?
2. For whatever rationale or in the complete absence of it, if I have one computer (a desktop) and have two or more static IP addresses, can I make forum posts from one IP while sending and receiving email messages from another IP address? (I understand that a Virtual Machine would make it possible, but the question is not about hardware or network virtualization)