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Routing & Switching · Intermediate

Hold-Down Timer

A timer during which a router ignores updates with worse metrics for a route recently marked unreachable.

Definition

Hold-down prevents a router from accepting stale information about a failed route while the failure propagates. In Cisco RIP the default hold-down is 180 seconds. During hold-down the router still forwards using the route if it remains in the table, but it does not accept a worse path.

Example

timers basic 30 180 180 240 sets RIP update, invalid, hold-down and flush timers.

Exam tip

Hold-down slows convergence; it is a distance-vector mechanism, not used by OSPF.

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