Routed daemon configuration Introduction 11.. TTaasskkss Many IP networks will operate very well with static routes. A LAN with a single gateway will be happy with one default route pointing to the gateway. On the other end, some networks interconnect many simpler networks, so have many gateways (routers). Unlike simpler networks where a single default route is enough for all machines (except maybe the gateway), all computers on those complex networks will need a way to find their way through all the available gateways. Here come dynamic routing and routed. 22.. rroouutteedd aanndd RRIIPP Dynamic routing is a complex subject. Many protocol do exist to exchange routes between IP hosts. Many of those protocols involve some notion of security (Which machine are allowed to tell me new routes). This is not the case with routed. It use a fairly simple protocol where every hosts is allowed to tell every other host about the routes it knows. Using a simple metric scheme, one is able to located the best (or the real) route to a given network. This is what RIP gives you. routed implement the RIP protocol. You have three options you may control. +o Do you want to activate routed ? +o Do you want your routed to talk or only listen. If your computer has only one interface (a single Ethernet adaptor for example), routed won't have anything to tell anyway. If you have more than one interface but don't want to be known as a router then this option is for you. +o If your machine is a router, you may have set a default route on it. This default route may be mistakenly taken as "the" default route for the entire network. You are allowed to hide this route to the network. 33.. SSttaattee ooff rroouutteedd routed is not known to be much reliable on _L_i_n_u_x. gated is often a prefered solution especially if you are concerned by security. You have much better control over which routes are exported and accepted. gated does much more than the RIP protocol. At this point, _L_i_n_u_x_c_o_n_f knows how to start/restart/kill gated but not much. The magic of /etc/gated.conf is left as an exercise to the reader.