What are the numeric OBJECT IDENTIFIERS of the objects
ipForwarding, icmpInEchoes and tcpMaxConn.
One interesting aspect of the ASN.1/BER is the way in which
OBJECT IDENTIFIERS are encoded. In general, the integers which
specify the OBJECT IDENTIFIER are simply encoded in BER as a
SEQUENCE of single byte values. However, the first two
integers (let's call them a and b) are encoded
in a compact form, taking only a single byte, of the form 40a +
b. So, for the Internet, the first two integers are 1.3,
therefore they are encoded as the single byte value 43. Can you imagine
a reason why this is done? What does it say about the values of these first
two integers?
Marshall T. Rose[1] espouses the fundamental axiom
of network management, which is: The impact of adding management to
managed nodes must be minimal, reflecting a lowest common
denominator. Discuss.
Practical Exercises:
Use the ping[2] command to check reachability
of various hosts at
Bendigo and elsewhere. Now investigate the command line options of
ping. Be sure to to try it on both the Indys and redgum.
The traceroute command is available on redgum. Use
traceroute (judiciously - see the man page). Now have a look at
ntping on the SGI systems (Indys, ironbark).