- Routing information protocol, or RIP,
is a true distance vector routing protocol.
RIP sends a complete routing table out
all active interfaces every 30 seconds.
It relies on hop count as a metric to determine
the best path to a remote network, but it has a maximum
allowable hop count of 15 by default.
So a destination of 16 hops would be considered unreachable.
RIP works okay in very small networks,
but it's inefficient on large networks with slow WAN
links or on networks with a large number of routers
installed.
It's completely useless on networks that have links
with variable bandwidths.
RIP doesn't even look at the bandwidth.
RIP version one uses only classful routing,
which means that all devices in the network
must use the same subnet mask.
This is because RIP version one doesn't send updates
with subnet mask information in tow.
RIP version two, however, provides something called
prefix routing and does send subnet mask information
with its route updates.
This is called classless routing.
To configure RIP routing, just turn on the protocol
with the router RIP command and tell the RIP routing
protocol the networks to advertise.
Remember that with static routing we always configured
remote networks and never typed a route to our directly
connected networks?
Well, dynamic routing is carried out the complete
opposite way.
You would never type a remote network under your routing
protocol.
Only enter your directly connected networks.