Overview of IPX

IPX is the network-layer routing protocol used in the Novell NetWare* environment. The primary tasks of IPX are addressing, routing, and switching information packets from one location to another on a network. In a LAN-based client the network interface card (NIC) provides network node addressing; in a tunneled environment, the gateway provides the network node addressing.

Network addresses form the basis of the IPX internetwork addressing scheme for sending packets between network segments. Every network segment of an internetwork is assigned a unique network address by which routers forward packets to their final destination network. On the gateway, all public interfaces are treated as a single network segment with a unique network address. A network address in the NetWare environment consists of eight hexadecimal characters. In the following example, 0x indicates that this is a hexadecimal number, and n is any hexadecimal character.

0xnnnnnnnn

Socket numbers are the basis for an IPX intranode address (the address of an individual entity within a node). They allow a process (for example, IPX Routing Information Protocol [RIP] and Service Access Points [SAP]) to distinguish itself to IPX. To be able to communicate on the network, the process must request a socket number. Any packets IPX receives addressed to that socket are then passed on to the process within the node.

The gateway uses IPX RIP and SAP to dynamically learn and advertise IPX routes and services. The gateway assigns IPX addresses to tunneled clients; remote users cannot configure the IPX tunnel address for their systems.

The gateway does not forward IPX packets from a private nontunneled LAN to another private nontunneled LAN, nor does it propagate routing or server tables from a private nontunneled LAN to another private nontunneled LAN.

On the PPTP client (for example, Microsoft Dial-Up Networking), you must enable the dial-up networking IPX option. Enabling the IPX option allows you to tunnel using IPX, IP, or IPX and IP according to the dial-up networking selections.

When running Windows 95 or Windows 98, load the intraNetWare client, which is available from the Novell Web site:

The NetWare client is already on Windows NT systems. You can use that or the Novell intraNetWare client , which you can access from the Novell Web site at http://www.novell.com.

IPX is disabled on a per-group basis by default. Therefore, you must enable IPX for group users to access IPX. Enable IPX for group users from the ProfilesGroupsEditConnectivity screen.

Regardless of the number of IPX public interfaces that are configured on the gateway, they all use the same IPX network address. You must enable the private interfaces that you want to use for IPX traffic, and for each private interface you must configure the IPX network address and IPX frame type. The IPX network address that you configure must match the IPX network address for that LAN, and the IPX frame type must match the IPX frame type for that LAN. In the following figure, the public interface IPX network address that the gateway provides is 0000A100.

In Figure 30, the private interface network address to the NetWare server is 00000B16 and the Frame Type is 802.3; similarly, the private interface network address to the Nortel Networks Router is 00000C22 and the Frame Type is SNAP.