title: Multicast vs Broadcast in LAN
body: <p>Is there any advantage to using a multicast group to send messages rather than just broadcasting them to a specific port? I understand that when broadcasting, other computers that don't want the messages receive them too, but how much does it affect performance/traffic? Don't the computers that don't care just dump the message immediately?</p>
  
  <p>As a side question, does multicast outside the LAN work at all?</p>