Setting Up a Basic XNS Router

The procedure in this section describes the minimum steps required to enable your system to route XNS packets. Depending on your network requirements, you can use the default values of the parameters, or you can further configure the router according to later sections in this chapter.

The parameters in the IDP and RIPXNS Services enable XNS routing functions.

Configuring for Local Area Networks and Point-to-Point Protocol Links

When setting up the basic XNS router, you first configure the router for LAN ports and Point-to Point Protocol (PPP) links.

Prerequisites

Before beginning this procedure, perform the following tasks:

• Log on to the system with Network Manager privilege.

• Set up the ports and paths of your bridge/router according to Chapter 1.

To set up the router for XNS routing, follow these steps:

1 . Enable XNS routing entering the following command:

SETDefault -IDP CONTrol = Route

In addition, you can configure the -IDP CONTrol parameter to provide error checking with the Checksum | NoChecksum value. Checksum provides a high degree of reliability in detecting bad data sent over the network. If Checksum is enabled, a router verifies the IDP checksum of a packet before it forwards the packet. The cost of this service, however, is lower network performance. The default value is NoChecksum.

2 . Configure XNS network numbers on each port connected (local interface or serial line interface) using the following syntax:

SETDefault !<port> -IDP NETnumber = &<number>(0-FFFFFFFE)

Valid network numbers consist of up to eight hexadecimal digits in the range &0 to &FFFFFFFE. The network number &FFFFFFFF is reserved. Use network number &0 to delete a previously assigned network number. You do not have to specify leading zeros in the network number.

Repeat this step for the other port(s). Each enabled port on a router must be assigned a different network number.

3 . Verify the XNS configuration by entering the following command:

SHow -IDP CONFiguration

The router displays the IDP configuration information. If the CONTrol parameter is not set to route, or the NETnumbers are incorrect, repeat steps 1 and 2.

4 . Begin routing table information exchanges with other routers that interface with a port by using the following syntax:

SETDefault !<port> -RIPXNS CONTrol = Enabled

5 . Repeat step 4 for each port being used for XNS routing.

After you have completed this procedure, dynamic XNS routing begins over the configured ports. To complete the configuration for PPP links, refer to Chapter 30.

For more information on dynamic and static routes, refer to "Customizing the XNS Router" .

Configuring for Wide Area Networks

XNS routing over Frame Relay, Asynchronous Transfer Mode data exchange interface (ATM DXI), and X.25 is supported over fully meshed, partially meshed, and nonmeshed topologies. If you plan to route XNS over a partially meshed or nonmeshed topology, you must create a virtual port for each remote network that is attached to a Frame Relay, ATM DXI, or X.25 cloud. For complete information on configuring XNS routing over Frame Relay, ATM DXI, or X.25, including a discussion of fully meshed, partially meshed, and nonmeshed topologies and virtual ports, refer to Chapter 37, Chapter 38, and Chapter 40, respectively. For information on the number of virtual ports supported per platform, refer to "Virtual Ports" .

Routing XNS over Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS) is supported over fully meshed and nonmeshed topologies (nonmeshed topologies require virtual ports). In addition, SMDS virtual ports are supported and can be used for traffic separation and various filtering of by assigning groups of nodes to different virtual ports. For more information, refer to Chapter 39.

To configure your XNS router to perform routing over PPP or phone line gateway (PLG), refer to Chapter 30. For more information on wide area networking using Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), refer to Chapter 31.