RIP (Routing Information Protocol) is an older distance vector routing protocol that is commonly used in small networks. It uses hop count as its metric and sends the entire routing table every 30 seconds. RIP version 2 is backwards compatible with version 1 and supports features like advertising subnet masks, authentication, and triggered updates. RIP is simple to configure but lacks more advanced capabilities of protocols like OSPF and EIGRP.

1. RIP Overview
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2. • RIP (Routing Information Protocol) is one of the oldest
distance vector routing protocols.
• It is usually used in small networks.
• RIP is very simple to configure and maintain, but lacks some
advanced features of routing protocols like OSPF or EIGRP.
• Two versions of the protocol exists: version 1 and version 2.
Both versions use hop count as a metric and have the
administrative distance of 120.
• RIP version 2 is capable of advertising subnet masks and
uses multicast to send routing updates, while version 1
doesn't advertises subnet masks and uses broadcast for
updates.
• Version 2 is backwards compatible with version 1.

3. • RIPv2 sends the entire routing table every 30
seconds, which can consume a lot of bandwidth.
• RIPv2 uses multicast address of 224.0.0.9 to send
routing updates, supports authentication and
triggered updates (updates that are sent when a
change in the network occurs).

4. For example of how RIP works, consider the following figure.

5. • Router R1 directly connects to the subnet 10.0.0.0/24.
• Network engineer has configured RIP on R1 to advertise this route.
• R1 sends routing updates to R2 and R3.
• The routing updates list the subnet, subnet mask and metric for this
route.
• Each router, R2 and R3, receives this update and adds the route to
their respective routing tables.
• Both routers list the metric of 1 because the network is only one hop
away.
• TIP - maximum hop count for a RIP route is 15. Any route with a
higher hop count is considered to be unreachable.