IP RIP (Routing Information Protocol) comes in two different versions: 1 and 2. Version 1 is a distance vector protocol (RFC 1058) and Version 2 is a hybrid protocol (RFCs 1721 and 1722).

Routing Information Protocol Version 1 (RIPv1)

RIPv1 uses local broadcasts to share routing information. These updates are periodic in nature, occurring, by default, every 30 seconds. To prevent packets from circling around a loop forever, both versions of RIP solve counting to infinity by placing a hop count limit of 15 hops on packets. Any packet that reaches the sixteenth hop will be dropped. RIPv1 is a classful protocol. RIP supports up to six equal-cost paths to a single destination. Equal-cost path are the paths where the metric is same (Hop count).

Routing Information Protocol (RIPv2)

RIPv2 is a distance vector protocol with routing enhancements built into it, and it is based on RIPV1. Therefore, it is commonly called a hybrid protocol.

RIPv2 uses multicasts instead of broadcasts. RIPv2 supports triggered updates. when a change occurs, a RIPv2 router will immediately propagate its routing information to its connected neighbours. RIPv2 is a classless protocol and it supports variable-length subnet masking (VLSM).

Both RIPv1 and RIPv2 uses hop count as the metric.

Difference between RIPv1 and RIPv2

RIPv1

• Supports only classful routing (Does not support VLSM)
• No authentication
• Uses Broadcast

RIPv2

• Supports classless routing (Supports VLSM)
• Authentication is available
• Uses multi-cast instead of broadcast

RIP Configuration

Router(config)# router rip
Router(config-router)# version 2
Router(config-router)# network network_id