Nobody Likes SLIP

Yay!  I passed the CompTIA Network+ certification test today!  According to Network+ Study Guide by David Groth and Toby Skandier, “The Network+ exam was designed to test the skills of network technicians with 18 to 24 months of experience in the field.”  Now I just need to convince potential employers of that.

One thing I noticed while studying for the test was that nobody likes Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP).  It was originally designed in 1984 by students at UC Berkley and is meant to transmit TCP/IP (the protocol that the internet runs on) over serial connections (like modem connections over a phone line).  It has now been made obsolete due to Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), which is a newer protocol that has the same main objective, but has a lot more features and is much easier to use.

Anyway, while taking practice tests in preparation for the real test, every time there was a question that dealt with SLIP in any way, the answer was always something along the lines of, “Stop using SLIP and switch to PPP.”  The answer was never something about changing the configuration of SLIP or other problems.  It was always to get rid of SLIP and use PPP.

Poor SLIP.