Question : IPX through VLANS

i installed a netware 6 server on my network, and i have problem connecting to it using a client from another vlan, my gateway between the vlans is a 3Com CoreBuilder, how can i check if it is configured to be used as an ipx gateway too? maybe i need to configure the server and the client use 802.1q frametype?

Thanks in advance,
Daniel Leicht.

Answer : IPX through VLANS

You should check the documentation for your CoreBuilder to make sure that you are not blocking IPX, but rather are bridging IPX.  Don't think of IPX and VLAN in the same thought - they are oil and water, unless your VLANs are proprietary based on switch-port or MAC address.  Usually VLANs are determined by the QOS tag in an IP packet, IIRC.

IPX, to my knowledge, is not subject to true VLAN/QOS pseudo-architecture, which IIRC are layer 3 and 4 functions.

VLAN, although done through switches, is a form of routing.  IPX should be bridged unless there are NetWare servers on each segment of the network, in which case they should be routed; but IPX routing is done using RIP or NLSP.  IPX frame types include 802.2 and 802.3 (802.2 is newer) but QOS/VLAN uses, as you mentioned, 802.1q.  Not applicable to IPX.

If you feel you must use IPX to connect your ghost boot-disk connections to your NetWare server (that's a guess, btw...) then you have to make sure your network backbone is not segmenting IPX, but bridging IPX.  IPX is dependent on SAP broadcasts, and if you are blocking broadcasts between segments, you won't get IPX connectivity.