ZyWALL 110/310/1100 Series User’s Guide
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Routing Protocols
10.1 Routing Protocols Overview
Routing protocols give the ZyWALL routing information about the network from other routers. The
ZyWALL stores this routing information in the routing table it uses to make routing decisions. In
turn, the ZyWALL can also use routing protocols to propagate routing information to other routers.
Routing protocols are usually only used in networks using multiple routers like campuses or large
enterprises.
10.1.1 What You Can Do in this Chapter
• Use the RIP screen (see
) to configure the ZyWALL to use RIP to
receive and/or send routing information.
• Use the OSPF screen (see
) to configure general OSPF settings and
manage OSPF areas.
• Use the OSPF Area Add/Edit screen (see
) to create or edit an OSPF
area.
10.1.2 What You Need to Know
The ZyWALL supports two standards, RIP and OSPF, for routing protocols. RIP and OSPF are
compared here and discussed further in the rest of the chapter.
Finding Out More
See
for background information on routing protocols.
10.2 The RIP Screen
RIP (Routing Information Protocol, RFC 1058 and RFC 1389) allows a device to exchange routing
information with other routers. RIP is a vector-space routing protocol, and, like most such
protocols, it uses hop count to decide which route is the shortest. Unfortunately, it also broadcasts
Table 72
RIP vs. OSPF
RIP
OSPF
Network Size
Small (with up to 15 routers) Large
Metric
Hop count
Bandwidth, hop count, throughput, round trip time and
reliability.
Convergence
Slow
Fast