Windows 2000 Administration in a Nutshell

Name

NWLink

Synopsis

Microsoft’s version of Novell’s LAN protocol suite IPX/SPX.

Description

NWLink is an implementation of Novell’s Internet Packet Exchange/Sequential Packet Exchange ( IPX/SPX) suite of network protocols used in legacy Novell NetWare Version 3.12 and earlier networks (which exclusively use IPX/SPX) and in NetWare Version 4.1 networks (which support IP encapsulated into IPX/SPX). Novell NetWare Version 5 now supports native IP, making IPX/SPX obsolete.

The NWLink protocol supports two higher-level APIs:

NetBIOS over IPX

To enable NetWare clients running NetBIOS to communicate with Windows 2000 servers

Winsock

To support NetWare applications that use the Sockets API

NWLink Terminology

To configure NWLink, you need to understand its terminology, which is borrowed from IPX/SPX:

Network number

Also called an external network number, a 4-byte hexadecimal number that uniquely identifies a network segment on a network running IPX. Network numbers are associated with the physical network adapters in the computers. All computers on the same segment that are configured with the same frame type (see later on in this list) must also have the same network number in order to communicate. Each network segment in an IPX internetwork must have its own unique network number.

Internal network number

A 4-byte hexadecimal number that identifies a virtual network within a computer running IPX. Internal network numbers are used for addressing and routing purposes between client and server applications ...