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From: jnford@handlebar.weeg.uiowa.edu (Jay Ford)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: SLIP documents
Message-ID: <4320@ns-mx.uiowa.edu>
Date: 7 Feb 91 18:48:26 GMT
References: <1991Feb6.172144.12605@nmt.edu>
Sender: news@ns-mx.uiowa.edu
Reply-To: jnford@handlebar.weeg.uiowa.edu (Jay Ford)
Organization: Weeg Computing Center, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
Lines: 32


In article <1991Feb6.172144.12605@nmt.edu>, nraoaoc@nmt.edu writes:
|> Where can I get some good documentation on SLIP? I have RFC1055, but it does
|> not state which of the actual protocols it uses (presumably because
it can use
|> more than one). Now, I thought it used UDP in most implementations, and I'm 
|> trying to convince someone that he's not getting much, if any, error
correction
|> on his SLIP connections, but he wants actual written proof. He thinks it's 
|> using TCP (as in "TCP/IP"), the same as Internet connections on
Ethernet links.
|> I can't remember where I read (ages ago) that SLIP (generally) uses UDP; is 
|> there such a beast?

SLIP does not "use" any transport or application protocols.  SLIP simply
provides a way to transmit IP traffic over a serial line.  In effect, it gives
you a link layer over a serial line functionally similar to that provided by
Ethernet for use on coax (or fiber, or twisted pair, or microwave...).  Once
you have a working link layer to run IP over, you can run any transport (UDP,
TCP, etc) over IP on that link.  The upper layers don't care what the medium
is.  That's the point of a layered approach to networking!

Applications use whatever transport protocol is appropriate, independent of
the link layer.  TELNET, FTP, SMTP and others use TCP;  NFS, DNS, and others
use UDP.

Basically, the only difference you should see between an Ethernet Internet
connection and a SLIP Internet connection is the speed and throughput.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jay Ford, Weeg Computing Center, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242
jnford@handlebar.weeg.uiowa.edu, 319-335-5555