Years before, the network layer protocol of the NetWare OS was one major LAN Operating System. Just like the IP network layer in the TCP/IP server, it has the network address & allowed messages to get routed to various networks and subnet. IPX network didn’t guarantee delivery of the complete message. Like IP packets, IPX packets of NetWare can get dropped from the overloaded routers, therefore either the application needs to ensure the delivery of an entire message or SPX protocol gets used.
Differentiate Between IPX and IP
IPX protocol is the networking protocol, which conducts various activities of end-to-end encryption process of managed, secured, and timely data. Made to be used by Novell NetWare OS, but later got adopted by the Windows. Since they replaced the NetWare LANS and became highly used on the networks deploying MS Windows LANs.
IPX/SPX were two networks & transport layers, which were equivalent to IP/TCP in the TCP/IP network. So, comparing NetWare to its OSI model, one clean difference is the LSL layer that offers the common interface to the network drivers. ODI & NDIS are two commonly performed LSL implementations.
How Does IPX Work?
IPX is a network layer & SPX is a transport layer of IPX/SPX protocol. IPX & IP protocol has got similar features and it defines how data can be sent or received between two devices. This SPX or transport layer protocol can be used for establishing a strong connection between two devices. And together it is used for transferring the data and to create a strong network connection between the systems.
IPX doesn’t require any consistent connection to maintain when packets are sent over from a system to others, it is what is known as being connectionless. This will resume its transfer from a point where this got interrupted because of the poor connection and power loss.
DOS operating system
The usage of IPX protocol has normally been decreasing, primarily because of the development of the internet and near-universal use of TCP/IP networks instead. In a simple term, the OSI model is not more than a relic of the past nowadays, and it is fast going in a way of floppy disk & DOS-based OS in the terms of usage in Internet-obsessed society today. The computers & networks that are capable of executing a huge amount of network protocols. All the IPX sites are running under the TCP/IP to allow Internet connectivity capability that is needed at corporate sites.
Applications of IPX
IPX offers peer-2-peer network connectivity. Just like IP, IPX has end-user data as well as is connectionless, like the network addresses. The original NetWare client Novell’s was written for DOS. Earlier, video games such as Quake, Descent, & WarCraft 2 were rightly supported with the IPX protocol for network gaming.
Use of IPX Today
More to a point, IPX protocol is nothing more than the redundancy at the present stage in a lifespan because it is possible to run the Novell products without any IPX’s help as all are dually compatible with TCP/IP & IPX since 1998 when its fifth iteration of the NetWare got released. Together with a fact that nobody except Novell is using IPX, and it is quite clear why this has become a big obsolete artifact of the bygone age some years ago.
How do you find the IPX network future?
IPX is getting used for many different services. And its universality is what many operators appreciate a lot. There’s quality-of-service & security that is of huge importance. It is believed that the IPX network has a very good future, given that it adapts. Even the situation is evolving daily and when we find the right answers to these requirements, IPX has a bright future.
Conclusion
We can say that the network address of IPX variety has a lot of similarities to the popular counterpart, and IP address—or network part of the IP address. This node address means the same to IPX since the bits belong to IP, manly when netmask bits get set to zero. As for the routing, IP routing tables & IPX table entries are very much similar to one another too. Both types of tables specify the network node of the next router for every network address in the same way.