nc -u 192.168.1.255 9999 fails

Question

I am trying to broadcast to 192.168.1.255 which is my broadcast address. ifconfig says

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 50:e5:49:51:0b:cb  
          inet addr:192.168.1.2  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::52e5:49ff:fe51:bcb/64 Scope:Link

but If i do nc -uv 192.168.1.255 9999 it reports

nc: connect to 192.168.1.255 port 9999 (udp) failed: Permission denied

but nc -uv 192.168.0.255 9999 works fine

Igor Hatarist · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-03T18:29:32.563

5

Try using socat instead since some nc tools don't support UDP broadcasting.

echo "HELLO" | socat - UDP4-DATAGRAM:192.168.1.255:9999,broadcast

edited Sep 03 '13 at 18:29

answered Sep 03 '13 at 17:36

Igor Hatarist

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It says `2013/09/03 23:47:25 socat[6518] E unknown device/address "–"` – Neel Basu Sep 03 '13 at 18:17
@NeelBasu sorry, I fixed the answer. Try again, this time it should work (at least it's working for me with socat 1.7.2.2 on both Archlinux and Mac OS X) – Igor Hatarist Sep 03 '13 at 18:30
Confirmed as working on Linux as well, great solution! – jmiserez Sep 23 '14 at 10:49

nc -u 192.168.1.255 9999 fails

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