NETGEAR RT314, RT311 manual Routing Information Protocol, IP Addresses and the Internet

Reference Guide for the Model FR314 Cable/DSL Firewall Router

Routers vary in performance and scale, number of routing protocols supported, and types of physical WAN connection they support. The FR314 Cable/DSL Firewall Router is a small office router that routes the IP protocol over a single-user broadband connection.

Routing Information Protocol

One of the protocols used by a router to build and maintain a picture of the network is the Routing Information Protocol (RIP). Using RIP, routers periodically update one another and check for changes to add to the routing table.

The FR314 firewall router supports both the older RIP-1 and the newer RIP-2 protocols. Among other improvements, RIP-2 supports subnet and multicast protocols. RIP is not required for most home applications.

IP Addresses and the Internet

Because TCP/IP networks are interconnected across the world, every machine on the Internet must have a unique address to make sure that transmitted data reaches the correct destination. Blocks of addresses are assigned to organizations by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

Individual users and small organizations may obtain their addresses either from the IANA or from an Internet service provider (ISP). You can contact IANA at www.iana.org.

The Internet Protocol (IP) uses a 32-bit address structure. The address is usually written in dot notation (also called dotted-decimal notation), in which each group of eight bits is written in decimal form, separated by decimal points.

For example, the following binary address:

11000011 00100010 00001100 00000111

is normally written as:

195.34.12.7

The latter version is easier to remember and easier to enter into your computer.

In addition, the 32 bits of the address are subdivided into two parts. The first part of the address identifies the network, and the second part identifies the host node or station on the network. The dividing point may vary depending on the address range and the application.

B-2 Network and Routing Basics