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Response for IP Record Route Option is a question about a concrete network protocol (the TCP/IP family). Are such questions on-topic here?

If the question was about the implementation of the protocol in a particular operating system, it would be clearly off-topic. For example, if the question was about the traceroute utility, I'd close it without hesitation. Conversely, if the question was about network modeling, or about the design of network protocols, it would be squarely on-topic. This is an intermediate case. What do we want to do about it?

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There is currently no other Stack Exchange site where network protocols are on-topic (see How can we improve moderation of IP networking questions on Stack Overflow and associated sites?). However this need not influence our stance as a community. We're not looking for a site to place the question, we're deciding whether it's on-topic here. – Gilles♦ Nov 19 '12 at 22:15
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I am torn. I think it's too concrete for a science site (there is an easy "science" answer: just send some package back! So the problem is with the implementation.), but on the other hand, we were taught TCP/IP in a CS class at university. – Raphael♦ Nov 20 '12 at 8:42
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@Raphael Programming classes, sometimes even IT or typing classes, often fall under the heading of CS, so that's not a good argument. I don't think you can dismiss the question as “too concrete” so easily. For example, we do accept questions about semantics of concrete programming languages, not just about language design. – Gilles♦ Nov 20 '12 at 17:11

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