Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pasteur!ames!sgi!vjs@rhyolite.SGI.COM
From: vjs@rhyolite.SGI.COM (Vernon Schryver)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: IP record route
Summary: who else answers RR echo requests?
Message-ID: <32182@sgi.SGI.COM>
Date: 5 May 89 18:11:30 GMT
References: <8905042139.AA01559@mozart.think.com>
Sender: daemon@sgi.SGI.COM
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 20

In article <8905042139.AA01559@mozart.think.com>, bruce@THINK.COM writes:
> I was just debugging some routes from our Nearnet gw with the Cisco ping
> command, which allows one to turn on IP options like "record route".  
> 
> --Bruce Walker (Nemnich), Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, MA
>   bruce@think.com, think!bruce, bjn@mitvma.bitnet; +1 617 876 1111

Using `ping -R` (derived from the BRL version) is entertaining  and has
been helpful to me in the continuing Butterfly wars.  One can often infer
which version of 4.xBSD networking a system is running by whether it ignores
the RR option when it responds, or does not respond at all.  Unfortunately,
I know of only sgi.sgi.com and brl.mil which answer with routes.  Would it be
possible to compile a list of geograpically dispersed machines (modulo the
network topology) which usefully answer Record-Route Echo-Requests?

Traceroute is handy, but does not satisfy the same needs.

Vernon Schryver
Silicon Graphics
vjs@sgi.com