MNC - Multicast NetCat
                        ------------------------

1. Introduction

mnc is a simple, one-direction-at-a-time, "netcat"-like application using multicast. The aim is to provide a tool for easy debugging and testing when setting up a multicast network or host. MNC supports IPv4 and IPv6 any-source-multicast and single-source-multicast, but depending on your platform some of those features may not be available:

   L = Listen (Implies IGMP/MLD mupport)
   S = Send

   +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
   | Platform | IPv4 ASM | IPv4 SSM | IPv6 ASM | IPv6 SSM |
   +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
   | *nix     |  L + S   |  L + S   |  L + S   |  L + S   |
   +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
   | Win2k    |  L + S   |    S     |   None   |   None   |
   +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
   | WinXP    |  L + S   |  L + S   |    S     |    S     |
   +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
   | Win2k3   |  L + S   |  L + S   |    S     |    S     |
   +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+

man doc/mnc.1 for information and help on how to run multicast.

2. Supported platforms

As of September 2004, mnc has been compiled and tested with Linux 2.6.8 kernels, the BSD KAME stack and Windows XP Profesional. Currently automatic interface selection does not work on a KAME-based host and you will need to specify the interface when in listening mode.

3. Installing mnc from source on UNIX:

   ./configure ; make ; make install

4. Compiling from source on Windows:

nmc is compilable with free utilities available from Microsoft. You need to download and install the free (as in beer) MS Visual C++ command-line tools from:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/vctoolkit2003/

and the SDK relevant to your platform from:

http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/

You can run a Visual C++ command-line session, and use:

cl /DWINDOWS=1 /TC /c *.c 
link /fixed /out:mnc.exe *.obj ws2_32.lib

to compile a working mnc.exe. The Windows version of MNC does not yet fully support IPv6 due to underlying limitation in the Operating System.

5. Reporting problems

Any problems, bugs or suggested features should be mailed to colm at apache.org.