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4. Fortunately, it does not have to define what the meaning of “is” is.

5. A few versions of UNIX (e.g., HP-UX) have adopted gated.

6. routed has a reputation for misbehavior on many systems. One of our reviewers went so far as to say, “routed is simply not to be trusted.”

7. This is true only within an area. If the summary record crosses into an adjacent area, the area-border router that forwards it will restate the information relative to itself.

8. OK, this statement isn’t entirely true. There are a few special area types, such as the “Not So Stubby Area” (NSSA) that may bridge routing information between leaves, but each route learned in this fashion is specially tagged so that it doesn’t accidentally create a loop.

9. Actually, “broadcast domain” would be a better term than “network” here. There is also a mechanism defined to support the concept of a designated router on a nonbroadcast (but multiaccess) network.

10. A variety of access methods can be configured. If your site already uses Cisco routers, contact your network administrator to find out which methods have been enabled.

11. Hot tip: Microsoft Word isn’t the best choice for this application.

14.9 RECOMMENDED READING

HUITEMA, CHRISTIAN. Routing in the Internet, Second Edition. Prentice Hall. 2000.

This book is a clear and well-written introduction to routing from the ground up. It covers most of the protocols in common use and also some advanced topics such as multicasting. Amazon.com customers who bought this book also bought the album The Dirty Boogie by The Brian Setzer Orchestra.

MOY, JOHN T. OSPF: Anatomy of an Internet Routing Protocol. Addison-Wesley. 1998.

A thorough exposition of OSPF by the author of the OSPF protocol standard and a big chunk of gated. Amazon.com customers who bought this book also bought the album Stunt by the Barenaked Ladies.

HALABI, BASSAM. Internet Routing Architectures, Second Edition. Cisco Press. 2000.

This book focuses on BGP, the most widely used exterior gateway protocol. Amazon.com customers who bought this book also bought the soundtrack to the movie The Matrix, featuring explicit lyrics.

There are many routing-related RFCs. The main ones are shown in Table 14.5.

Table 14.5. Routing-related RFCs

15 Network Hardware

Nothing is influencing our culture today more than the ability to move large amounts of data from one place to another very quickly. We now have world-wide connectivity at a level that only die-hard sci-fi fanatics could have dreamed of just a few years ago. Behind all of this craziness is fancy network hardware and—you guessed it—a whole bunch of stuff that originated in the deep, dark caves of UNIX.

Keeping up with all these fast-moving bits is the challenge. The speed and reliability of your network has a direct effect on your organization’s productivity. A poorly designed network is a personal and professional embarrassment. It can also be very expensive to fix.

At least three major factors contribute to a successful installation:

• Development of a reasonable network design

• Selection of high-quality hardware

• Proper installation and documentation

The first sections of this chapter discuss the media that are commonly used for local area and wide area networking, including Ethernet, ATM, frame relay, and DSL. We then cover design issues you are likely to face on any network, be it new or old.

15.1 LAN, WAN, OR MAN?

We’re lucky, in a sense, that TCP/IP can be easily transported over a variety of media. In reality, however, the network hardware market is split into a variety of confusing classifications.

Networks that exist within a building or group of buildings are generally referred to as Local Area Networks or LANs. High-speed, low-cost connections prevail. Wide Area Networks—WANs—are networks in which the endpoints are geographically dispersed, perhaps separated by thousands of kilometers. In these networks, high speed usually comes at high