Re: 2 NIC

[Richard Welty <rwelty@averillpark.net>]

On Mon, 11 Mar 2002 23:51:49 -0800 (PST) Ted U <grendel@heorot.stanford.edu> wrote:

> what's routed for? 

routed implements the RIP dynamic routing protocol.

RIP is an obsolescent protocol which used to be widely used; it has severe
scaling problems and implementation of new RIP networks is not implemented.

the only good thing i have to say about RIP is that it's easy to set up new
RIP networks. there are a few older networking devices which for some
reason only implement RIP, which is one of two reasons why RIP should be
turned up at a facility. the other is an obscure trick whereby RIP can be
used to help manage failover for two redundant network links; you normally
wouldn't do this, but there are times where it might be the best way to
go. 

gated implements a broader array of protocols -- RIP, OSPF, BGP4, and in
some variants IS-IS (probably no IS-IS in any of the free ones, though.)
it is not without its problems, but can be gotten to work ok. there have
been commercial router products that actually ran *BSD and a gated variant
(the Ascend GRF is one i have used.)

zebra is a new fangled routing daemon which has a lot of proponents. i have
no direct experience with it, though.

for smallish networks with simple, relatively static topologies, static
routes are best.

richard
--
Richard Welty                                         rwelty@averillpark.net
Averill Park Networking                                         518-573-7592
              Unix, Linux, IP Network Engineering, Security