Справочник Пользователя для Compatible Systems 5.4

Each group of devices is assigned a unique “network number” which repre-
sents that particular group to all of the routers on the network. Packets which 
are sent between members of the same group are simply sent directly from 
one member to another.

Packets which must go between devices belonging to two different groups 
travel through routers, which forward them along an optimal path.

By examining the destination network number in a packet that must be 
forwarded, and by using information that routers automatically pass between 
themselves in IPX Routing Information Protocol (RIP) packets, any router 
can determine the optimal path for forwarding packets from one group to 
another.

This scheme relies on the fact that each segment is assigned a unique network 
number. If not, the routers have no way of knowing which of the physical 
segments with that number should actually receive a packet.

IPX Routing Example

Among routable network protocols, IPX is relatively simple. Each physical 
network segment is assigned a network number by the routers on the segment. 
The network number can be in the range of 1 to FFFFFFFE (that’s 8 hexadec-
imal digits). In the diagram above, 100 and 10C01 are the network numbers 
for the two segments shown.

Establishing the network number for an IPX network segment is referred to 
as “seeding” the network. You should generally only have one seed router per 

Backbone

Local

 Net

Router

Workstation

Workstation

Net: 100

Net: 10C01