[plug] RIP/OSPF

[Matt Kemner]

Hi Tim

On Fri, 19 Jun 2009, quoth Tim:

[...]

> While researching the issue, I discovered RIP/OSPF, and started
> wondering if maybe I should have one of those enabled on my network,
> to ensure that shortest path for traffic is taken. The server that was
> replaced used to inform computers that there was a shorter path when
> the traffic didn't need to go through it. (So anything not on port 80
> it would tell the computer it could talk directly to the modem). I
> only discovered it once when pinging an address, and noticing that the
> first ICMP reply also included information about a shorter path. The
> new server how ever doesn't do this. I assume that this was probably
> RIP updating routing tables?

That's not RIP or OSPF, it's ICMP redirects which are part of the default
ipv4 stack.

You can enable and disable those via proc on a per interface basis:

/proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/*/send_redirects

/proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/*/accept_redirects

> So, should I have ether RIP or OSPF running on the server and modem?
> Would that have solved this issue?

I don't think you want to be running those on your home network unless a)
you have a far more complicated home network than most and/or b) you want
to play with routing protocols for educational purposes, in which case I
suggest having a play with Quagga - and OSPF and/or BGP.

 - Matt