With no arguments, the ipx_configure command displays (Net web server) the
With no arguments, the ipx_configure command displays the current setting of the automatic configuration flags: # ipx_configure Auto Primary Select is OFF Auto Interface Create is OFF Both the Auto Primary and Auto Interface flags are off by default. To set them and enable automatic configuration, you simply supply arguments like these: # ipx_configure –auto_interface=on –auto_primary=on When the –auto_primary argument is set to on, the kernel will automatically ensure that at least one active interface operates as the primary interface for the host. When the –auto_interface argument is set to on, the kernel IPX driver will listen to all of the frames received on the active network interfaces and attempt to determine the IPX network address and frame type used. The auto-detection mechanism works well on properly managed networks. Sometimes network administrators take shortcuts and break rules, and this can cause problems for the Linux auto-detection code. The most common example of this is when one IPX network is configured to run over the same Ethernet with multiple frame types. This is technically an invalid configuration, as an 802.2 host cannot directly communicate with an Ethernet-II host and therefore they cannot be on the same IPX network. The Linux IPX network software listens on the segment to IPX datagrams transmitted on it. From these, it attempts to identify which network addresses are in use and which frame type is associated with each. If the same network address is in use with multiple frame types or on multiple interfaces, the Linux code detects this as a network address collision and is unable to determine which is the correct frame type. You will know this is occurring if you see messages in your system log that look like: IPX: Network number collision 0×3901ab00 eth0 etherII and eth0 802.3 If you see this problem, disable the auto-detection feature and configure the interfaces manually using the ipx_interface command described in the next section. The ipx_interface Command The ipx_interface command is used to manually add, modify, and delete IPX capability from an existing network device. You should use ipx_interface when the automatic configuration method just described does not work for you, or if you don’t want to leave your interface configuration to chance. ipx_interface allows you to specify the IPX network address, primary interface status, and IPX frame type that a network device will use. If you are creating multiple IPX interfaces, you need one ipx_interface for each. The command syntax to add IPX to an existing device is straightforward and best explained with an example. Let’s add IPX to an existing Ethernet device: # ipx_interface add -p eth0 etherII 0×32a10103 The parameters in turn mean: -p This parameter specifies that this interface should be a primary interface. This parameter is optional. eth0 This is the name of the network device to which we are adding IPX support. etherII This parameter is the frame type, in this case Ethernet-II. This value may also be coded as 802.2, 802.3, or SNAP. 0×32a10103 This is the IPX network address to which this interface belongs. The following command removes IPX from an interface: # ipx_interface del eth0 etherII Lastly, to display the current IPX configuration of a network device, use: