ZyXEL Communications P-870HW-I User Manual

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P-870HW-I1 User’s Guide
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Chapter 8 LAN
The Version field controls the format and the broadcasting method of the RIP packets that the 
ZyXEL Device sends (it recognizes both formats when receiving). RIP-1 is universally 
supported; but RIP-2 carries more information. RIP-1 is probably adequate for most networks, 
unless you have an unusual network topology.
Both RIP-2B and RIP-2M sends the routing data in RIP-2 format; the difference being that 
RIP-2B uses subnet broadcasting while RIP-2M uses multicasting.
8.1.3  Multicast
Traditionally, IP packets are transmitted in one of either two ways - Unicast (1 sender - 1 
recipient) or Broadcast (1 sender - everybody on the network). Multicast delivers IP packets to 
a group of hosts on the network - not everybody and not just 1. 
IGMP (Internet Group Multicast Protocol) is a network-layer protocol used to establish 
membership in a Multicast group - it is not used to carry user data. IGMP version 2 (RFC 
2236) is an improvement over version 1 (RFC 1112) but IGMP version 1 is still in wide use. If 
you would like to read more detailed information about interoperability between IGMP 
version 2 and version 1, please see sections 4 and 5 of RFC 2236. The class D IP address is 
used to identify host groups and can be in the range 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255. The address 
224.0.0.0 is not assigned to any group and is used by IP multicast computers. The address 
224.0.0.1 is used for query messages and is assigned to the permanent group of all IP hosts 
(including gateways). All hosts must join the 224.0.0.1 group in order to participate in IGMP. 
The address 224.0.0.2 is assigned to the multicast routers group. 
The ZyXEL Device supports both IGMP version 1 (IGMP-v1) and IGMP version 2 (IGMP-
v2
). At start up, the ZyXEL Device queries all directly connected networks to gather group 
membership. After that, the ZyXEL Device periodically updates this information. IP 
multicasting can be enabled/disabled on the ZyXEL Device LAN and/or WAN interfaces in 
the web configurator (LAN; WAN). Select None to disable IP multicasting on these 
interfaces.
8.1.4  LAN IP Alias
IP alias allows you to partition a physical network into different logical networks over the 
same Ethernet interface. The ZyXEL Device supports three logical LAN interfaces via its 
single physical Ethernet interface with the ZyXEL Device itself as the gateway for each LAN 
network.
When you use IP alias, you can also configure firewall rules to control access between the 
LAN's logical networks (subnets).
Note: Make sure that the subnets of the logical networks do not overlap.
The following figure shows a LAN divided into subnets A, B, and C.