Description

This article is from the AmiTCP/IP FAQ, by Mike Meyer with numerous contributions by others.

6.3: What is C/SLIP?

SLIP is Serial Line Internet Protocol. SLIP is used, most commonly, for
connecting a computer to a TCP/IP network using a modem. SLIP lets IP
packets be sent up and down a serial line. 
CSLIP is an extension of the SLIP protocol, which reduces the typical
TCP/IP packet-overhead of 40 bytes per packet to 3 or 5 bytes by
"remembering" a number of active connections, not resending unused fields,
and only sending changes to the headers. Since a compression algorithm is
not used, it does not impair any compression added by your modem, and thus
presents a significant improvement in packet throughput! CSLIP gives much
better response in interactive applications such as Telnet. (Thanks Oliver
and Markus) 
If your providers don't have SLIP, or if you are your provider, and you
don't have SLIP, it is publically available. Ask you System Administrator
for more information. 
Existing AmiTCP CSLIP drivers will only use CSLIP if it is available on
the remote end. Otherwise they will gracefully degrade to using ordinary
SLIP. 
For a detailed description of SLIP and CSLIP consult a book on TCP/IP
protocols. There is a SLIP faq available in comp.protocols.tcp-ip
newsgroup. 
SLIP is described in RFC 1055. CSLIP is described in RFCs 1055 & 1144  

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