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- <H1>Routing</H1>
- <P>
- Routing is the method by which information originating at one host on
- the Internet is delivered to a destination that might be anywhere in
- the world. Information is transferred in packets. If the
- packets are addressed to a destination on a remote network, they
- are sent to a router, which either forwards the packets to the
- destination host (if the address is local) or sends them to another
- network. Because a router can forward packets to local networks only
- (networks to which it is directly attached), the forwarding action is
- repeated, from router to router, until the packets reach their final
- destination.
- </P>
- <P>
- By TCP/IP conventions, a system that routes packets between networks is
- considered a gateway. On the WebFORCE Internet Gateway, routing is supported
- by the <VAR>routed</VAR> process.
- </P>
- <P>
- To determine the available paths to a destination, a router relies on
- routing tables. A default routing table is automatically generated
- during system startup. Because the default routing table supports local
- routing only (routing to those networks to which the host is directly
- attached), the table must be supplemented to include routes to remote
- networks. Additional routes are added in two ways: With static
- routing, the administrator explicitly specifies the route to
- remote destinations; these routes remain constant, regardless of
- changing conditions on the Internet. With dynamic routing,
- the router process communicates with other routers to determine the
- most efficient route to a destination; these routes increase the
- chances of fast and successful packet delivery.
- </P>
- <P>
- The server can also be configured to perform multicast
- routing. In multicast routing, information packets are forwarded
- to a designated group of routers, skipping intermediate routers in the
- path if they do not support the multicast routing protocol. To
- configure multicast routing, the administrator creates tunnels that
- allow packets to bypass non-multicast routers on their way to a
- destination.
- </P>
- <P>Use these forms to configure routing:</P>
- <UL>
- <LI><A HREF="index.routing1.shtml" TARGET="left">Dynamic Routing</A>
- <LI><A HREF="index.routing2.shtml" TARGET="left">Gateways Configuration</A>
- <LI><A HREF="index.routing3.shtml" TARGET="left">Multicast Routing</A>
- <LI><A HREF="index.routing4.shtml" TARGET="left">Static Routing</A>
- </UL>
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