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

Mon Oct 3 14:27:37 UTC 2005

On Sep 30, 2005, at 11:53 AM, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:

> In message <17213.15974.330499.500268 at roam.psg.com>, Randy Bush  
> writes:
>>>> 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.
>
> And it's much easier to understand, at least for a beginner.

I've been teaching routing protocols for a long time, and I almost  
always start with RIP for people who don't know what "protocol" means.

If you start with OSPF or IS-IS, you invariably get caught up in  
things like "what is 'link state'?" or "why does Shortest Path First  
take that path when it's 'longer'?"  Plus any "Internet" engineer  
needs to know about things like hop-count before they can truly  
understand BGP.

Also, I usually include reasons to use RIP in a production network.   
They are few and far between, but RIP has properties which could be  
considered "features" when compared to other protocols.

-- 
TTFN,
patrick