Compatible Systems 5.4 - Manual (Page 287)

Appendices 281
Static Routes & Routing Protocols
In addition to the three required values, you must also decide whether to use
an IP routing protocol. Routing protocols are how routers tell each other about
networks they are responsible for. Virtually all routers support the IP Routing
Information Protocol (RIP).
There are also a variety of other routing protocols which have been devel-
oped, some proprietary and some open. A router which is using one of these
other protocols can always accept routes using RIP and then supply informa-
tion about them using the other protocol.
If you choose not to use RIP, or other routers on your network are not broad-
casting routing information, you may need to set a default router or define
some static routes.
The default router is the place where your router will send any packets
addressed to IP networks that it does not know about. With RIP turned off, it
will only know about statically configured routes. For very simple IP connec-
tions, such as a small network being connected out to the Internet through an
ISP, a default route is probably the only routing information needed by your
router.
A default router provides a generic location for packets to be sent to, while
static routes are more detailed definitions where you specify the route for
certain networks, and a “metric” which defines how attractive the route
should be considered.
When specifying default routes, you must provide a mask value (as discussed
earlier) which tells the router how much of the address you are entering the
route for should be considered as the network portion.
IPX 101
v Note: This is a very brief introduction to IPX networking. For more
in-depth information, there are a number of excellent references. In partic-
ular, Rick Sant’Angelo’s NetWare Unleashed (SAMS Publishing) provides a
good overview of IPX routing along with tips on getting IPX drivers correctly
loaded on client machines.
IPX Routing Basics
All routable protocols work by dividing the physical devices on a network
into logical groups. A logical group will typically consist of all of the
machines on a physical network segment (such as an Ethernet segment).