Netbios; Protocol And Standards; Configuring Ipx Basic Functions - HP A-MSR Series Configuration Manual

Initializing NetWare client
When a NetWare client is initializing, it needs to locate a server. To do so, the client broadcasts a GNS
request. At least one router or server can give a SAP response, which contains information such as packet
type, service type, and server name and address. The NetWare client can communicate with the server
through the IPX address in the response packet.
Because the GNS request is broadcast, the client can only get a response from the server in the local IPX
network. To locate a server in another network, the IPX router can send a RIP request to get the route to the
server, and send the route and service information to the client. In this way, the client can communicate with
a server in another network.
Updating SAP periodically
A server broadcasts a SAP packet to provide the service name and type, and its IPX address. The IPX router
that receives the broadcast adds the service to the service information database and periodically broadcast
such information in the directly connected networks. The advertisements can thus flood the entire network.
By default, SAP broadcasts are sent every 60 seconds. Each packet can have up to 7 service information
items by default. If a large amount of service information needs to broadcast, the information can be sent in
several packets. For example, 20 service information items can be sent in 3 packets.

NetBIOS

To enable use of network basic input/output system (NetBIOS) in a NetWare environment, Novell provides
the following solutions:
As a broadcast, a NetBIOS packet is not routable. A mechanism is needed for the routing device to forward
these packets. The mechanism used by Novell is to set the packet type contained in the IPX header to 20,
indicating that the IPX packet is a NetBIOS packet. A device must forward such packets according to certain
rules to make sure that NetBIOS packets are transmitted in the IPX network.

Protocol and standards

RFC 1 132, Standard for the transmission of 802.2 packets over IPX networks
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RFC 1634, Novell IPX Over Various WAN Media (IPXWAN)
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Configuring IPX basic functions

The node address specified with ipx enable [ node node ] is the global node address used by all interfaces
but the Ethernet interfaces on the router.
If no node address is specified, the router specifies the MAC of the first Ethernet interface as the global
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node address.
If no Ethernet interfaces are available, the router generates the global node address randomly
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according to the system clock.
An Ethernet interface uses its own MAC address as the node address rather than the global one.
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