The Executive's Basic Guide to Intranets
(Sidebar)
How TCP/IP and IPX Work on Intranets
In many companies there will continue to be a mix of TCP/IP-based intranets and
networks based on other, proprietary networking technology like Novell's
NetWare which uses the IPX (Internet Packet Exchange) protocol as a way to
deliver data. TCP/IP networks can't recognize this protocol. To get around this
problem, when an IPX packet is to be sent across an intranet to another Novell
network, it is first encapsulated inside an IP packet by a NetWare server
specifically set up for and dedicated to providing the IP transport mechanism
for IPX packets (i.e. a NetWare TCP/IP server).
An intranet treats this IP packet as it would any other and routes it to the
receiving NetWare network. On the receiving NetWare network, a NetWare TCP/IP
server decapsulates the IP packet and discards it, reading the original IPX
packet to determine how to deliver the data to its final destination.
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