Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is an interior gateway protocol (IGP) that was designed for small IP networks. RIP relies on hop count to determine routes; the best routes have the fewest number of hops. RIP is based on UDP and uses port 520 for route updates. By limiting routes to a maximum of 15 hops, the protocol helps prevent the development of routing loops, but also limits the supported network size. Before you configure RIP, consider that if more than 15 hops are required, traffic is not routed. RIP also can take longer to converge than OSPF and other routing protocols.

The firewall supports RIP v2.