[ENet-discuss] channels

[M. Rijks]

I'm equally interested in the answers (wasn't yet aware that channel  
255 was in use either, I was actually planning to use that channel  
myself).

I can only imagine that Enet uses channels of up to a maximum of 255  
for one obvious reason: reducing packet size. Each packet contains a  
channel identifier, therefore a single byte means a smaller packet  
('unlimited' or negative channels would require integers which would  
cost four bytes per packet).

As for why a client sets the number of channels - might this be  
convenience? The server will need to allocate a set of channels per  
client, so maybe it lets the client decide how many channels the  
server should allocate at connect time?

Still, I can't link that to channel 255 being used always. Unless Enet  
internally adds one channel and rotates the channel numbers.