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The ADSL Barricade can be configured to communicate with
other routing devices to determine the best path for sending
data to its intended destination. Routing devices communicate
this information using a variety of IP protocols. This section
describes how to configure the ADSL Barricade to use one
of these, called the Routing Information Protocol (RIP).
RIP Overview
RIP is an Internet protocol you can set up to share routing table
information with other routing devices on your LAN, at your ISP's
location, or on remote networks connected to your network via
the ADSL line. Generally, RIP is used to enable communication
on autonomous networks. An autonomous network is one in
which all of the computers are administered by the same entity.
An autonomous network may be a single network, or a grouping
of several networks under the same administration. An example
of an autonomous network is a corporate LAN, including devices
that can access it from remote locations, such as the computers
telecommuters use.
Using RIP, each device sends its routing table to its closest
neighbor every 30 seconds. The neighboring device in turn
passes the information on to its next neighbor and so on until all
devices in the autonomous network have the same set of routes.