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From: gmc@PREMISES1.QUOTRON.COM (Greg Christy)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: What the Heck Is SLIP? : -)
Message-ID: <9106260522.AA08621@premises1.Quotron.COM>
Date: 26 Jun 91 05:22:41 GMT
References: <1991Jun26.015531.241@socrates.umd.edu>
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SLIP stands for Serial Line IP.  It is a method for framing IP
datagrams for transmission over a serial line.  This is quite often
used to connect one IP host or gateway to another over dial-up modems.
There are a number of implementations available for UNIX systems, IBM
PCs, and terminal servers.   See RFC-1055 for details on the protocol.

While SLIP is widely available, it is considered a "non-standard"
internet protocol.  The "standard" protocol for doing this is the
Point-to-Point Protocol or PPP (RFC-1171 and RFC-1172).  While PPP is
the up-and-coming method for establishing serial network links, it has
taken more time to find its way into the commercial mainstream.  This
is probably due to a variety of reasons, least of which is the greater
complexity of implemention of PPP as compared to SLIP.

I have found that the most important feature for a dial-up IP link,
whether it is SLIP or PPP, is the availability of Van Jacobson's TCP
header compression (RFC-1144).  This makes an incredible difference in
the effective throughput. 

Greg