Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bu-cs!kwe
From: kwe@bu-cs.BU.EDU (kwe@bu-it.bu.edu (Kent W. England))
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: IP options crash our Sun gateway
Message-ID: <20702@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 17 Mar 88 16:14:39 GMT
References: <8803151852.AA12900@sccgate.scc.com>
Reply-To: kwe@buit13.bu.edu (Kent England)
Followup-To: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Organization: Boston Univ. Information Tech. Dept.
Lines: 21
Keywords: IP option RR LSRR
Summary: Is IP RR/LSRR useful?

In article <8803151852.AA12900@sccgate.scc.com> oconnor@SCCGATE.SCC.COM (Michael J. O'Connor) writes:
>When our stock SMI DDN gateway attempted to forward IP-grams containing RR or
>LSRR options, it would crash.  Our box is a 3/260 running SOS 3.5 and acts as
>a gateway between our local ethernet-based network and the ARPANET.  
>
>Based on a report from Allison Mankin of MITRE, that the crashing is caused by
>a previously reported typo in ip_stripoption(), I have patched our binary in an
>attempt to reverse the effects of the typo.  The patch has been working now for
>a little over 2 weeks.  

	It seems that IP RR and LSRR options will crash a lot of
gateways.  I would like to hear from others how widespread the
problem is (other known implementation failures) and what they think
the utility of RR and LSRR is for debugging and network management.
	Seems to me that record route and loose source routing options
would be extremely useful for checking router tables without actually
doing a netstat or equivalent.  However, if there are too many routers
that crash or don't record themselves or follow the route request,
then such an option is unusable.
	I have never read a conversation on this in tcp-ip.  Anyone
able to make use of IP route options?  If so, how useful is it?