Protocol

Description of Cisco RV110W Firewall Router Protocol

The Cisco RV110W Wireless-N VPN Firewall has protocols that enable VPN access
for remote employees of the business. Such protocols of PPTP, HTTPS and RIP-2 use
TCP/IP internet protocol suite. This implements IPv4.
Composed Protocols of VPN Firewall Protocol
a) Point to Point Tunnelling Protocol (PPTP)
The first Protocol which is Point to Point Tunnelling Protocol (PPTP) is a network
protocol that allows the protected transmission of data from a distant client to a business
network.
PPTP supports Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) with multiple protocols. This
grants remote users an access to networks owned by corporate with high security integrated into
the operating system in use, such as Microsoft OS or Mac.
PPTP uses an extended form of GRE (Generic Routing Encapsulation) in order to transport
the user Point-to-Point-Protocol packets. This provides the PAC (PPT Access Concentrator)
and the PNS (PPT Network Server).
ii. Core Components of PPTP
The PPTP components for this type of firewall router is as follows:
Protocol Structure:
Length Is the sum of length in octets of the above PPTP message inclusive of the PPTP
header.
PPTP message type Is the type of message with probable values of 1 and 2 for
Message Control and Message Management respectively.
Magic Cookie which makes proper synchronization and appropriate data stream of the
TCP of the receiver.
Control Message Type
Call Management
Reserved 0 & 1 - These should be to value of 0.
Protocol version This is the PPTP version number
Framing Capabilities This is an indicator for the kind of frame that the sender of a
particular message could provide.
Bearer Capabilities This is an indicator for senders capability to send a message by
providing 1 or 2 which are Analogue and Digital respectively.
Maximum Channels This is the added number of all PPP sessions that can be
supported by the PPT Access Concentrator (PAC).
Firmware Revision This comprises the revision number of the firmware which is
issued by the PAC.
Host Name This contains the name of the DNS which is issued by the PAC or the PNS.
Vendor Name This comprises the name description for the PAC in use or the PNS
type of software.

iii. Strengths of PPTP Protocol
Compatibility with Windows OS
The first major advantage of using PPTP is the fact that if you use a computer that
operates using Microsofts Windows, it supports PPTP by default.
User Friendliness
Which means, setting up the PPTP protocol is so straight forward since the data has not
been encrypted with the usage of IPsec.
Cost-Effectiveness
This is very cheap and has easy installation process which can be done without even prior
basic knowledge of networking.
iv. Weakness of PPTP protocol
PPTP has some limitations and here are some of the most common drawbacks:
Low Security Standards
Since it does not verify the origin of data while it does not also provide integrity to the
data itself.
Poor Performance on Unstable Connections
The other eminent drawback of this type of protocol is its poor performance whenever it
is used on a network that is known to be unstable.
b) Secure- HTTPS
i. Protocol Description
Secure HTTP (S-HTTP) is a secure message-oriented communications protocol
designed for use in conjunction with HTTP. In addition to this, Secure-HTTP does not need
to have public keys for the side of the client. This is mainly because, it supports transactions
that are secure and end-to-end.
ii. Core Components of the HTTP Protocol
As illustrated on the diagram, the main components of the HTTP is as follows:
The request message has the following format:

Table 1: Core Components of the HTTP Protocol
The Secure-HTTP (HTTPS) allows specific processing which clearly distinguishes its
messages from those of the HTTP.

The response message has the following format:

Precisely, the Status Line of the Secure-HTTP does not indicate anything as to whether
the requested unwrapped HTTP becomes successful or failed.
iii. Strengths of HTTPS
1. Ease of use
One biggest advantages offered by Secure-HTTPS is the ease of use: It makes easier to
distinguish between pictures and audio files that are stored on the web.
2. Connectionless
In addition to that, this protocol does not need connection. This offers users to browse at
a very high speed.
3. More Secure
HTTPS, which is a more secure protocol as compared to the previous HTTP. It provides
data encryption in order to maintain full security for the respective users.
iv. Weakness of HTTPS protocol
On the other hand, HTTPS but it has shortcomings that must be considered.
All web pages that are accessed by Secure-HTTP cannot be cached in a single cache
that could be shared. Such inability of caching by the browser can lead to users no able
to save their files on to storage devices or to have them opened through external web
applications.
Numerous overhead computations are needed in order for the data
encryption/decryption to be successful..
Access to HTTPS websites may not be granted by some proxy and firewall system.
Usage of HTTPS is quite expensive due to its annual charges of issuing certificates.
c) Routing Protocol (RIP-2)
i. Protocol Description
It is an extension of RIP which is meant for the expansion of the quantity of information
to be transmitted in the RIP-2 messages. RIP-2 also offers additional security measures. RIP2
is based on User Datagram Protocol (UDP) whereby every host with RIP2 usage has a
process of routing for sending and receiving datagrams on a UDP with a port number.
ii. Core Components of the RIP-2 Protocol
The components of a routing protocol are as follows as clearly depicted in picture.
RIP-2 Protocol Structure:
Command This is used to specifically state the datagram purpose.
Version This indicates the current version number of the RIP version number.
Address family identifier This shows the type of the specified for the entry.
Route tag -- This is an attribute label given to every route in the network.
IP address This is the IP address of the destination address.
Subnet mask This is the value given to the IP address to generate the non-host part of the
address.
Next hop This is the IP address of the next hop to which packets to the specified
destination by this entry route must be channelled.
Metric which signifies the added cost of obtaining a datagram from the host to the
required endpoint or destination.
iii. Strengths of RIP-2 Protocol
This is known to being a very a standardized protocol.
This protocol is compliant to Variable-Length Subnet Mask (VLSM).
It reflects network changes with quick convergence while sending all the necessary
notifications.
It makes snapshot routing an ideal one for dial networks since it supports and easily
works with snapshot routing.
iv. Weakness of RIP-2 protocol
Due to RIP-2s vulnerability on count-to- infinity, the Max hop count is 15.
RIP-2 does not have the concept of neighbours.
With the exception of triggered update, RIP-2 exchanges the complete table with all
neighbours for every 30 seconds.