Configuring RIP

This chapter describes how to configure RIP. For a complete description of the RIP commands that
appear in this chapter, refer to the “RIP Commands” chapter of the Network Protocols Command
Reference, Part 1. To locate documentation of other commands that appear in this chapter, use the
command reference master index or search online.
The Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is a relatively old, but still commonly used, interior gateway
protocol (IGP) created for use in small, homogeneous networks. It is a classical distance-vector
routing protocol. RIP is documented in RFC 1058.
RIP uses broadcast User Datagram Protocol (UDP) data packets to exchange routing information.
The Cisco IOS software sends routing information updates every 30 seconds; this process is termed
advertising. If a router does not receive an update from another router for 180 seconds or more, it
marks the routes served by the nonupdating router as being unusable. If there is still no update after
240 seconds, the router removes all routing table entries for the nonupdating router.
The metric that RIP uses to rate the value of different routes is hop count. The hop count is the
number of routers that can be traversed in a route. A directly connected network has a metric of zero;
an unreachable network has a metric of 16. This small range of metrics makes RIP an unsuitable
routing protocol for large networks.
If the router has a default network path, RIP advertises a route that links the router to the
pseudonetwork 0.0.0.0. The network 0.0.0.0 does not exist; RIP treats 0.0.0.0 as a network to
implement the default routing feature. The Cisco IOS software will advertise the default network if
a default was learned by RIP, or if the router has a gateway of last resort and RIP is configured with
a default metric.
RIP sends updates to the interfaces in the specified networks. If an interface’s network is not
specified, it will not be advertised in any RIP update.
Cisco’s implementation of RIP Version 2 supports plain text and MD5 authentication, route
summarization, classless interdomain routing (CIDR), and variable-length subnet masks (VLSMs).
For protocol-independent features, which also apply to RIP, see the chapter “Configuring IP Routing
Protocol-Independent Features” in this document.

RIP Configuration Task List

To configure RIP, complete the tasks in the following sections. You must enable RIP. The remaining
tasks are optional.
• Enable RIP
• Allow Unicast Updates for RIP

Configuring RIP P1C-89

Enable RIP

• Apply Offsets to Routing Metrics

• Adjust Timers
• Specify a RIP Version
• Enable RIP Authentication
• Disable Route Summarization
• Run IGRP and RIP Concurrently
• Disable the Validation of Source IP Addresses
• Enable or Disable Split Horizon
• Configure Interpacket Delay
For information about the following topics, see the “Configuring IP Routing Protocol-Independent
Features” chapter:
• Filtering RIP information
• Key management (available in RIP Version 2)
• VLSM

Enable RIP
To enable RIP, use the following commands, starting in global configuration mode:

Step Command Purpose

1 router rip Enable a RIP routing process, which places you in
router configuration mode.
2 network network-number Associate a network with a RIP routing process.

Allow Unicast Updates for RIP

Because RIP is normally a broadcast protocol, in order for RIP routing updates to reach
nonbroadcast networks, you must configure the Cisco IOS software to permit this exchange of
routing information. To do so, use the following command in router configuration mode:

Command Purpose
neighbor ip-address Define a neighboring router with which to exchange
routing information.

To control the set of interfaces with which you want to exchange routing updates, you can disable
the sending of routing updates on specified interfaces by configuring the passive-interface
command. See the discussion on filtering in the “Filter Routing Information” section in the
“Configuring IP Routing Protocol-Independent Features” chapter.

P1C-90 Network Protocols Configuration Guide, Part 1

 Apply Offsets to Routing Metrics

Apply Offsets to Routing Metrics

An offset list is the mechanism for increasing incoming and outgoing metrics to routes learned via
RIP. This is done to provide a local mechanism for increasing the value of routing metrics.
Optionally, you can limit the offset list with either an access list or an interface. To increase the value
of routing metrics, use the following command in router configuration mode:

Command Purpose
offset-list [access-list-number | name] {in | out} offset Apply an offset to routing metrics.
[type number]

Adjust Timers
Routing protocols use several timers that determine such variables as the frequency of routing
updates, the length of time before a route becomes invalid, and other parameters. You can adjust
these timers to tune routing protocol performance to better suit your internetwork needs. You can
make the following timer adjustments:
• The rate (time in seconds between updates) at which routing updates are sent
• The interval of time (in seconds) after which a route is declared invalid
• The interval (in seconds) during which routing information regarding better paths is suppressed
• The amount of time (in seconds) that must pass before a route is removed from the routing table
• The amount of time for which routing updates will be postponed
It also is possible to tune the IP routing support in the software to enable faster convergence of the
various IP routing algorithms, and, hence, quicker fallback to redundant routers. The total effect is
to minimize disruptions to end users of the network in situations where quick recovery is essential.
To adjust the timers, use the following command in router configuration mode:

Command Purpose
timers basic update invalid holddown flush [sleeptime] Adjust routing protocol timers.

Specify a RIP Version

Cisco’s implementation of RIP Version 2 supports authentication, key management, route
summarization, classless interdomain routing (CIDR), and variable-length subnet masks (VLSMs).
Key management and VLSM are described in the chapter “Configuring IP Routing
Protocol-Independent Features.”
By default, the software receives RIP Version 1 and Version 2 packets, but sends only Version 1
packets. You can configure the software to receive and send only Version 1 packets. Alternatively,
you can configure the software to receive and send only Version 2 packets. To do so, use the
following command in router configuration mode:

Command Purpose
version {1 | 2} Configure the software to receive and send only
RIP Version 1 or only RIP Version 2 packets.

Configuring RIP P1C-91

Enable RIP Authentication

The preceding task controls the default behavior of RIP. You can override that behavior by
configuring a particular interface to behave differently. To control which RIP version an interface
sends, use one of the following commands in interface configuration mode:

Command Purpose
ip rip send version 1 Configure an interface to send only RIP Version 1
packets.
ip rip send version 2 Configure an interface to send only RIP Version 2
packets.
ip rip send version 1 2 Configure an interface to send RIP Version 1 and
Version 2 packets.

Similarly, to control how packets received from an interface are processed, use one of the following
commands in interface configuration mode:

Command Purpose
ip rip receive version 1 Configure an interface to accept only RIP Version 1
packets.
ip rip receive version 2 Configure an interface to accept only RIP Version 2
packets.
ip rip receive version 1 2 Configure an interface to accept either RIP Version 1
or 2 packets.

Enable RIP Authentication

RIP Version 1 does not support authentication. If you are sending and receiving RIP Version 2
packets, you can enable RIP authentication on an interface.
The key chain determines the set of keys that can be used on the interface. If a key chain is not
configured, no authentication is performed on that interface, not even the default authentication.
Therefore, you must also perform the tasks in the section “Manage Authentication Keys” in the
“Configuring IP Routing Protocol-Independent Features” chapter.
We support two modes of authentication on an interface for which RIP authentication is enabled:
plain text authentication and MD5 authentication. The default authentication in every RIP Version 2
packet is plain text authentication.

Note Do not use plain text authentication in RIP packets for security purposes, because the
unencrypted authentication key is sent in every RIP Version 2 packet. Use plain text authentication
when security is not an issue, for example, to ensure that misconfigured hosts do not participate in
routing.

To configure RIP authentication, use the following commands in interface configuration mode:

Step Command Purpose

1 ip rip authentication key-chain Enable RIP authentication.
name-of-chain
2 ip rip authentication mode {text | md5} Configure the interface to use MD5 digest
authentication (or let it default to plain text
authentication).

P1C-92 Network Protocols Configuration Guide, Part 1

 Disable Route Summarization

Step Command Purpose

3 See the section “Manage Authentication Perform the authentication key management tasks.
Keys” in the “Configuring IP Routing
Protocol-Independent Features” chapter.

See the “Key Management Examples” section of the “Configuring IP Routing Protocol-Independent
Features” chapter for key management examples.

Disable Route Summarization

RIP Version 2 supports automatic route summarization by default. The software summarizes
subprefixes to the classful network boundary when crossing classful network boundaries.
If you have disconnected subnets, disable automatic route summarization to advertise the subnets.
When route summarization is disabled, the software transmits subnet and host routing information
across classful network boundaries. To disable automatic summarization, use the following
command in router configuration mode:

Command Purpose
no auto-summary Disable automatic summarization.

Run IGRP and RIP Concurrently

It is possible to run IGRP and RIP concurrently. The IGRP information will override the RIP
information by default because of IGRP’s administrative distance.
However, running IGRP and RIP concurrently does not work well when the network topology
changes. Because IGRP and RIP have different update timers, and because they require different
amounts of time to propagate routing updates, one part of the network will end up believing IGRP
routes and another part will end up believing RIP routes. This will result in routing loops. Even
though these loops do not exist for very long, the time to live (TTL) will quickly reach zero, and
ICMP will send a “TTL exceeded” message. This message will cause most applications to stop
attempting network connections.

Disable the Validation of Source IP Addresses

By default, the software validates the source IP address of incoming RIP routing updates. If that
source address is not valid, the software discards the routing update.
You might want to disable this feature if you have a router that is “off network” and you want to
receive its updates. However, disabling this feature is not recommended under normal
circumstances. To disable the default function that validates the source IP addresses of incoming
routing updates, use the following command in router configuration mode:

Command Purpose
no validate-update-source Disable the validation of the source IP address of
incoming RIP routing updates.

Configuring RIP P1C-93

Enable or Disable Split Horizon

Enable or Disable Split Horizon

Normally, routers that are connected to broadcast-type IP networks and that use distance-vector
routing protocols employ the split horizon mechanism to reduce the possibility of routing loops.
Split horizon blocks information about routes from being advertised by a router out of any interface
from which that information originated. This behavior usually optimizes communications among
multiple routers, particularly when links are broken. However, with nonbroadcast networks (such as
Frame Relay and SMDS), situations can arise for which this behavior is less than ideal. For these
situations, you might want to disable split horizon. This applies to IGRP and RIP.
If an interface is configured with secondary IP addresses and split horizon is enabled, updates might
not be sourced by every secondary address. One routing update is sourced per network number
unless split horizon is disabled.
To enable or disable split horizon, use one of the following commands in interface configuration
mode:

Command Purpose
ip split-horizon Enable split horizon.
no ip split-horizon Disable split horizon.

Split horizon for Frame Relay and SMDS encapsulation is disabled by default. Split horizon is not
disabled by default for interfaces using any of the X.25 encapsulations. For all other encapsulations,
split horizon is enabled by default.
See the “Split Horizon Examples” section at the end of this chapter for examples of using split
horizon.

Note In general, changing the state of the default is not recommended unless you are certain that
your application requires making a change in order to advertise routes properly. Remember: If split
horizon is disabled on a serial interface (and that interface is attached to a packet-switched network),
you must disable split horizon for all routers in any relevant multicast groups on that network.

Configure Interpacket Delay

By default, the software adds no delay between packets in a multiple-packet RIP update being sent.
If you have a high-end router sending to a low-speed router, you might want to add such interpacket
delay to RIP updates, in the range of 8 to 50 milliseconds. To do so, use the following command in
router configuration mode:

Command Purpose
output-delay delay Add interpacket delay for RIP updates sent.

RIP Configuration Examples

This section contains RIP split horizon configuration examples.

Split Horizon Examples

Two examples of configuring split horizon are provided.

P1C-94 Network Protocols Configuration Guide, Part 1

 Split Horizon Examples

Example 1
The following sample configuration illustrates a simple example of disabling split horizon on a serial
link. In this example, the serial link is connected to an X.25 network.
interface serial 0
encapsulation x25
no ip split-horizon

Example 2
In the next example, Figure 17 illustrates a typical situation in which the no ip split-horizon
interface configuration command would be useful. This figure depicts two IP subnets that are both
accessible via a serial interface on Router C (connected to Frame Relay network). In this example,
the serial interface on Router C accommodates one of the subnets via the assignment of a secondary
IP address.
The Ethernet interfaces for Router A, Router B, and Router C (connected to IP networks
10.13.50.0, 10.155.120.0, and 10.20.40.0, respectively, all have split horizon enabled by
default, while the serial interfaces connected to networks 172.16.1.0 and 192.168.1.0 all have
split horizon disabled with the no ip split-horizon command. Figure 17 shows the topology and
interfaces.

Figure 17 Disabled Split Horizon Example for Frame Relay Network

Network address: Network address:

10.20.40.0 10.155.120.0
Interface address: Interface address:
10.20.40.1 10.155.120.1
E0 E2

S0
Router C Router B S2
Network address:
10.13.50.0
Interface address: Secondary
Interface address: interface address: Interface address:
10.13.50.1 192.168.1.2
172.16.1.1 192.168.1.1
E1
Network
address:
S1 Network 192.168.1.0
Router A address:
Interface address: 172.16.1.0
172.16.2.2

Frame Relay
network
S1069a

In this example, split horizon is disabled on all serial interfaces. However, split horizon must be
disabled on Router C in order for network 172.16.1.0 to be advertised into network 192.168.1.0,
and vice versa. These subnets overlap at Router C, interface S0. If split horizon were enabled
on serial interface S0, it would not advertise a route back into the Frame Relay network for
either of these networks

Configuring RIP P1C-95

RIP Configuration Examples

Configuration for Router A

interface ethernet 1
ip address 10.13.50.1
!
interface serial 1
ip address 172.16.2.2
encapsulation frame-relay
no ip split-horizon

Configuration for Router B

interface ethernet 2
ip address 10.155.120.1
!
interface serial 2
ip address 192.168.1.2
encapsulation frame-relay
no ip split-horizon

Configuration for Router C

interface ethernet 0
ip address 10.20.40.1
!
interface serial 0
ip address 172.16.1.1
ip address 192.168.1.1 secondary
encapsulation frame-relay
no ip split-horizon

P1C-96 Network Protocols Configuration Guide, Part 1