Configuring static routes at the network edge

[eshah]

We have some Cisco 1750 routers at the edge of our network which are running RIP. We were advised to use static routes on the router, since there was only one route (across a WAN link) for traffic to go from the hub connected to the router, as RIP would only waste the limited bandwidth to the router.

If we use a static route and remove RIP from the 1750 router, then it seems that we will have to include static routes everywhere for traffic to know how to get to the router.

Is there a way to remove RIP at the edge router, and still be able to communicate with the entire network with adding static routes everywhere?

[Kevin Dorrell · Accepted solution]

Yes you can. You could set up a default static route on your edge router, run RIP on your internal routers in order to propagate the default, but block the RIP to the outside.

On your edge router, make a default route to your external link. Keep RIP running as before, but add the line redistribute static in your rip configuration. That will get the default route propagated.

Now to stop the RIP on the external interface: If the link is on a different major IP network to your internal network, you can simply not include it in the network commands under rip. But if it is in the same network, then RIP will be enabled on the interface, so you will have to add passive-interface xxxxx, where xxxxx refers to the interface carrying your external link,

Alternatively, you could define your default route using the ip default-network command. This will get propagated automatically into the RIP even without the redistribute command.

Here is a document about default routes:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/customer/tech/tk365/technologies_tech_note09186a0080094374.shtml

Hope it helps;

Kevin Dorrell

Luxembourg