Linux IPX HOWTO

4. Some of the terms used in this document.

You will often see the terms client and server used in this document. They are normally fairly specific terms but in this document I have generalized their definitions a little so that they mean the following:

client

The machine or program that initiates an action or a connection for the purpose of gaining use of some service or data.

server

The machine or program that accepts incoming connections from multiple remote machines and provides a service or data to those.

These definitions are not very reliable either, but they provide a means of distinguishing the ends of peer to peer systems such as SLIP or PPP which truly do not actually have clients and servers.

Other terms you will see are:

Bindery

The bindery is a specialised database storing network configuration information on a Novell fileserver. Netware clients may query the bindery to obtain information on available services, routing and user information.

Frame Type

is a term used to describe that actual protocol used to carry the IPX (and IP) datagrams across your ethernet style network segments. There are four common ones. They are:

Ethernet_II

This is a refined version of the original DIX ethernet standard. Novell has been allocated a formal protocol id and this means that both IPX and IP can coexist happily in an Ethernet_II environment quite happily. This is commonly used in Novell environments and is a good choice.

802.3

This is an I.E.E.E. protocol defining a Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) mechanism. It was based on the original DIX Ethernet standard, with an important modification, the type (protocol id) field was converted into a length field instead. It is for this reason that IPX really shouldn't be run here. IEEE 802.3 was designed to carry IEEE 802.2 frames only but there are implementations that use it to carry IPX frames directly and remarkably it does work. Avoid it unless you are trying to interwork with a network already configured to use it.

802.2

This is an I.E.E.E. protocol that defines a set of Logical Link Control procedures. It provides a simplistic way of allowing different protocols to coexist, but is quite limited in this respect. Novell uses an unofficial Service Address Point (like a protocol id) but since everyone else uses it as well, that hasn't yet presented too much of a problem.

SNAP

SNAP is the Sub Network Access Protocol. This protocol is designed ride on top of 802.3 and 802.2. It expands the multiprotocol capability of 802.2 and provides some measure of compatability with existing Ethernet and Ethernet_II frame types.

IPX

Internet Packet eXchange is a protocol used by the Novell corporation to provide internetworking support for their NetWare(tm) product. IPX is similar in functionality to the IP protocol used by the tcp/ip community.

IPX network address

This is a number which uniquely identifies a particular IPX network. The usual notation for this address is in hexadecimal. An example might look like: 0x23a91002.

IPX Internal network

This is a virtual IPX network. It is virtual because it does not correspond to a physical network. This is used to provide a means of uniquely identifying and addressing a particular IPX host. This is generally only useful to IPX hosts that exist on more than one physical IPX network such as fileservers. The address is coded in the same form as for a physical IPX network.

RIP

Routing Information Protocol is a protocol used to automatically propagate network routes in an IPX network. It is functionally similar to the RIP used within the tcp/ip community.

NCP

NetWare Core Protocol is a networked filesystem protocol designed by the Novell Corporation for their NetWare(tm) product. NCP is functionally similar to the NFS used in the tcp/ip community.

SAP

Service Advertisement Protocol is a protocol designed by the Novell Corporation that is used to advertise network services in a NetWare(tm) environment.

Hardware address

This is a number that uniquely identifies a host in a physical network at the media access layer. Examples of this are Ethernet Addresses. An Ethernet address is generally coded as six hexadecimal values separated by colon characters eg. 00:60:8C:C3:3C:0F

route

The route is the path that your packets take through the network to reach their destination.