[ih] Source routing

[Greg Skinner]

On Feb 2, 2025, at 10:37 AM, Dave Crocker via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 
> My recollection is that mechanisms for source routing were common in the early days, but lost favor.
> 
> UUCP networking (!) was a version.  SMTP originally supported it.  I don't think Arpanet packets did, though I have a vague sense there was some selectivity allowed.  And I don't think IP did.
> 
> I'm curious about a rough summary of when and how it was used and when and why it lost favor.
> 
> d/
> 
> -- 
> Dave Crocker
> 
> Brandenburg InternetWorking
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I found a couple of mentions of the use of IP source routing in the tcp-ip digest using the following query at Google Groups:

https://groups.google.com/g/fa.tcp-ip/search?q="source route” <https://groups.google.com/g/fa.tcp-ip/search?q=%22source%20route%22>

One of those was part of Jon Postel’s TCP Bakeoff.  One got 15 points for doing the source route option.

--gregbo