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Re: [Misc][Rant] Internet router (straying slightly OT)

  • From: Joe Abley
  • Date: Fri Sep 30 10:06:12 2005 
On 30-Sep-2005, at 09:32, Randy Bush wrote:


To get an understanding of routing-protocols, begin with RIP[3] and
perhaps run your own RIP-lab

necromancy will be severely punished.

many hand-on routing workshops start with rip, though with the
warning "you will now learn why not to use rip."  it makes it
easy to teach poison reverse, ... in a relatively small setting.
RIP also has the advantage that a worked, non-trivial example of the protocol can fit on a whiteboard, which makes it a reasonable way to teach the concept of a routing protocol to a classroom full of people who have never heard of such at thing.

Absolutely agreed, however, that such teaching also necessarily involves emphatic shouting of "YOU WILL NOT TURN THIS ON IN YOUR PRODUCTION NETWORK".

[ObAnecdote: I once heard of an airline reservations desk in Hong Kong which had a backup connection to the airline's main centre of operations far distant from Hong Kong, using dial-on-demand ISDN, circa 1995. The monthly invoice for international ISDN charges that followed a contractor's decision to "fix the router by turning on RIP" was apparently an impressive thing to behold, especially given the agressive ISDN idle tear-down configured on the router and minimum 1-minute billing per call.]


Joe