[1755] in linux-net channel archive
Re: Static vs dynamic routing from ISP
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Chris Woods)
Wed Jan 31 15:58:24 1996
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 1996 23:00:45 -0500 (EST)
From: Chris Woods <cjwoods@paladin.com>
To: John Burton <john@piper.gats.hampton.va.us>
cc: linux-net@vger.rutgers.edu
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.91.960130083016.21463B-100000@piper.gats.hampton.va.us>
On Tue, 30 Jan 1996, John Burton wrote:
> I'm not sure I agree with this statement. Perhaps *your* ISP does static
> routing, but the ones I'm familiar with use dynamic routing. In particular
> the two network connection (one to the Internet, and one to a large Class
> B LAN0 use dynamic routing to handle the 6 Class C networks I'm dealing
> with.
It is a fairly accurate statement to say that a huge majorit of ISP's that
sell services to individual dialup users utilize static routing tables.
Heck, even Sprint would rather route to a "smallish" customer via static
tables. I ran an ISP for a while; started with a 384k FR from Netcom,
upgraded to a T1 from sprintlink. When we moved to sprintlink, I
specifically asked to be routed via BGP4. The engineers were adamant about
maintaining static routing tables instead. At the time it was not a big
deal, since we only had a handful of CIDR blocks. Of course, as the
routing tables grow, it only makes sense to use BGP, but for most end-user
dialup providers, it will be via static routing tables. From my
experience, your situation is the exception, and not the rule.
> Huh? The Internet runs on *static* routing tables ? Not the portion of the
> Internet I'm connected to. As far as the rest (including the Backbones) I
> don't think static routing could *handle* the dynamic nature of the Internet
> unless you had one person assigned to *every* router connected to it to
> make sure that the routing tables were up to date.
Of course the larger networks are all maintained via BGP (and more
recently OSPF). However, to maintain BGP, a half-decent router is
required, one with some serious memory. You probably won't find a static
routing table on any of the routers at, say, MAE-EAST or any of the NAPs.
Chris Woods Systems Administrator
cjwoods@paladin.com Paladin Computing Solutions
617-273-4226 http://www.paladin.com
"Never underestimate the destructive power of a backhoe." -Brent Chapman
