Can I Run IP and IPX on the Same Cisco 1720?

[admin_2]

I have an IP network that needs to interconnect via a Cisco 1720 into a Novell network. The only routing is a static default route pointing at a serial link to our IP core network. The Ethernet connects into the Novell network.

Normally, we assign a normal IP address range to an Ethernet interface. How do we connect to an IPX network? Can we have an IP address on the Ethernet and connect it into IPX?

[#2]

First, consider IP and IPX to be completely different protocols. Routers will not help you connect machines speaking these two protocols. This means, if you have a client running IP and a server running IPX, or the other way around, no router will solve the problem for you.

It does not mean the two protocols cannot peacefully coexist in a single network. You can run IP and IPX on a single interface of a router, which means you may configure a router to route IPX packets and IP packets from one workstation appropriately and independent from each other. You can also tunnel IPX over IP; in other words, if you have two or more IPX networks and the only interconnection between them is an IP backbone , that is not a problem. IPX networks can be made to see each other.

To work with IPX at all, you need to have IPX-aware software on your router. The symbol of this software will usually contain a letter "B" or "Q" - in your case it would be like "CD17-B..." or "S17Q..."

If you have an IPX backbone, you need both a router with IPX support and IPX clients configured on your workstations. So, you must have both IP and IPX clients configured on your workstations (unless you do not need IP at all).