[comp.protocols.tcp-ip] IP record route

bruce@THINK.COM (05/05/89)

I was just debugging some routes from our Nearnet gw with the Cisco ping
command, which allows one to turn on IP options like "record route".  

I began just pinging a friendly Sun4 at NRL (on 128.60) without any IP
options on, and the machine was responding fine.  But when I tried it with
record-route on, it stopped responding to any pings for quite a while, even
subsequent ones without record on.  Since I can't seem to reach any
machines on that net after the experiment, I assume the target machine
didn't crash, but it seems as if I might be crashing a gateway along the
way with record-route!

I did this twice with the same results.  I can reach that net again after
about 10 minutes.  If anyone had a couple of unexpected gateway crashes
today, the last about 5pm, this could explain it.

--Bruce Walker (Nemnich), Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, MA
  bruce@think.com, think!bruce, bjn@mitvma.bitnet; +1 617 876 1111

vjs@rhyolite.SGI.COM (Vernon Schryver) (05/06/89)

In article <8905042139.AA01559@mozart.think.com>, bruce@THINK.COM writes:
> I was just debugging some routes from our Nearnet gw with the Cisco ping
> command, which allows one to turn on IP options like "record route".  
> 
> --Bruce Walker (Nemnich), Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, MA
>   bruce@think.com, think!bruce, bjn@mitvma.bitnet; +1 617 876 1111

Using `ping -R` (derived from the BRL version) is entertaining  and has
been helpful to me in the continuing Butterfly wars.  One can often infer
which version of 4.xBSD networking a system is running by whether it ignores
the RR option when it responds, or does not respond at all.  Unfortunately,
I know of only sgi.sgi.com and brl.mil which answer with routes.  Would it be
possible to compile a list of geograpically dispersed machines (modulo the
network topology) which usefully answer Record-Route Echo-Requests?

Traceroute is handy, but does not satisfy the same needs.

Vernon Schryver
Silicon Graphics
vjs@sgi.com

evan@BRAZOS.RICE.EDU (Evan Wetstone) (05/06/89)

It has been our experience that sending an ICMP ECHO with IP options turned
on through a Sun (SunOS 3.5 or lower, we haven't tested it with 4.0) that
has two Ethernet interfaces will immediately crash the Sun.  If anyone 
between you and NRL is using a Sun-3 with two interfaces, you probably
crashed it with that ping.....


Evan Wetstone
Networking and Planning
Rice University, PO Box 1892, Houston TX, 77251-1892, (713) 527-6059
evan@rice.edu, evan@rice.bitnet, rice!evan, postmaster@rice.edu