Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 13:14:45 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: jhay@mikom.csir.co.za (John Hay) Cc: terry@lambert.org, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: NetBUI and/or IPX routing? Message-ID: <199601262014.NAA05110@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <199601261948.VAA02595@zibbi.mikom.csir.co.za> from "John Hay" at Jan 26, 96 09:48:04 pm
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> I think you are a bit sidetracked. The original question was if it is > possible to have a Netware server on one side of a router and only IPX > clients on the other side. (No Netware server on that side) > > ------------ ----------- ---------- > | Netware | Net A | FreeBSD | Net B | IPX | > | |-----------| |---------| | > | Server | | Router | | Client | > ------------ ----------- ---------- > > This is possible with Netware 3.11 and DOS and Windose clients. We are > using it here. I don't have a Netware 4.xx server so I don't know if that > will work. > > What happens is that the FBSD router will gather the IPX RIP and SAP > information that is broadcast by the server (and others if there are more > than one). When you start a IPX client it will do a SAP GetNearestServer > request (broadcast) which the router will answer. This packet contains the > name and address of the Netware Server. The client will then do a RIP > request to find a router that will route packets to the server address that > it just received. The router will answer it because it will see that it > is the cheapest (only) route to the server. Only then the client will send > a NCP connection request to allocate a connection slot. This is send to > the server. So the router does not have to answer any NCP requests. Not all clients will RIP. Not all clients use the internal field rather than the source address on the Nearest Server response (ie: GetNearestServer can not be routed for these clients without the router lying about its IPX network number in the IPX header). I'm glad that the Nearest Server response is properly proxied, but this will not fix all clients (especially 'remote reset' clients). To do that, you will have to fake source address in the IPX header as well as setting server address for the "nearest server" in the response. Like sliding windows in SPX, there is a major discrepancy between specification and implementation. In addition, I would caution that a delay is necessary on router proxy response to a GetNearestServer. Consider the case of: ------------ ----------- o ---------- | Netware | Net A | FreeBSD | x----| IPX | | |---------| | | | | | Server1 | | Router |----x N | Client | ------------ ----------- | e ---------- | t | ------------ | B | NetWare | x----| | | | Server2 | o ------------ A "GetNearestServer" from "IPX client" will elicit a response both from "FreeBSD Router" and "NetWare Server2". You want the client to get the "NetWare Server2" response first; the way to do this is to delay the response from "FreeBSD Router". There is *not* a hop-count based "election" on nearest server preference; it's whoever answers first. The Native NetWare server and the NWU NetWare server both parameterize the ability to delay response. A local server is preferaable to a routed serve because of negotiated packet sizes through routers dropping to 512. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
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