clarification

4- what is the maximum distance between any two points in a autonm. system?

I mean the number of hops on the network topology of a provider. Not how many hops a particular protocol (RIP) will take or the distance in miles etc. Simply the "diameter" (i.e. longest shortest path where the distance measure is the hop count). thnx and sorry for confusion. bulent _____________________________________________________ Bulent Yener Information Sciences Research Center Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies 600 Mountain Avenue, Room 2T-314 Murray Hill, NJ 07974 email: yener@research.bell-labs.com phone: (908) 582 7087 fax: (908) 582 1239 _____________________________________________________