Contact Information
- Name: CAEN Staff
- Email: caen@umich.edu
- Phone: (734) 764-CAEN
Releases Quick Access
Monday, July 01, 2002
CAEN Network Backbone to Disable Non-IP Traffic
On July 1, 2002, AppleTalk and IPX routing across the CAEN network backbone will be disabled. Faculty and staff should begin preparing for this change now.
Modern networking equipment is designed specifically to route IP traffic efficiently. Routing other protocols in addition to IP represents a significant overall performance penalty. To meet the ever-increasing demands for IP network bandwidth in the College, CAEN finds it necessary to disable AppleTalk and IPX routing and take full advantage of the capabilities of the backbone hardware.
Departments may choose to continue to route either AppleTalk or IPX within their own individual buildings. This decision will limit the network degradation to the equipment within the building, and is a tradeoff that may be necessary on a departmental basis for continued support of existing computers. However, as no remote network services will be reachable via these protocols, the benefits of continuing to route them will be minimal.
For example, a workstation configured with an IPX-based NetWare client may still have access to a local, departmental IPX-based NetWare file server. However, neither the workstation or the file server would be able to contact the campus NetWare infrastructure, the Michigan tree, over IPX. To regain this same functionality, the NetWare client and server software on both machines would have to be upgraded to a version which supports NetWare over IP.
As another example, a Macintosh computer configured to use AppleTalk may frequently connect to both a local office printer and a printer in another building within the College. After the backbone configuration change has taken place, only the local printer will be visible in the Chooser. Again, to restore connectivity to the remote printer, both the Macintosh and the printer would need to be upgraded to connect to each other over IP. Depending on the model of computer and printer involved, it may not be possible to upgrade the existing equipment. It may have to be replaced.
A fairly common, cross-platform situation exists throughout the College that is of particular note. CAEN maintains two NetWare servers for print spooling which many departments use. Many Windows-based workstations have been configured to print to these spoolers over IPX, using the server names \\caen-spool5 and \\caen-spool6. The spoolers then forward the print jobs over AppleTalk to printers throughout the College. After the network backbone change, these centrally-located spoolers will not be reachable by the workstations over IPX, nor will they be able to reach the printers over AppleTalk. It will be necessary to upgrade or replace the computers and the printers involved so that they can communicate directly with each other over IP for printing to continue.
CAEN is announcing this change to the network backbone configuration well over a year in advance in order to give faculty and staff the time necessary to evaluate their current equipment and upgrade software and/or replace hardware as needed. Most of the computer and printer hardware now being sold is IP-capable. Windows 2000 supports IP-based printing natively, for example. But a large number of computers already installed in the College may need to have software upgraded or even replaced with new equipment in order to connect to the network using IP. It may also be necessary to replace many of the printers in the College that are only capable of accepting print jobs over AppleTalk.
It is also important that any new computers and printers purchased for use on the college network be verified before purchase to be IP-capable.
Your departmental computing staff have been aware of this upcoming change for some time now, and should be able to assist you in evaluating your computers and printers. Future CAEN News articles also will include information on potential software upgrades and equipment configurations that will result in successful IP-only computing and printing.
Modern networking equipment is designed specifically to route IP traffic efficiently. Routing other protocols in addition to IP represents a significant overall performance penalty. To meet the ever-increasing demands for IP network bandwidth in the College, CAEN finds it necessary to disable AppleTalk and IPX routing and take full advantage of the capabilities of the backbone hardware.
Departments may choose to continue to route either AppleTalk or IPX within their own individual buildings. This decision will limit the network degradation to the equipment within the building, and is a tradeoff that may be necessary on a departmental basis for continued support of existing computers. However, as no remote network services will be reachable via these protocols, the benefits of continuing to route them will be minimal.
For example, a workstation configured with an IPX-based NetWare client may still have access to a local, departmental IPX-based NetWare file server. However, neither the workstation or the file server would be able to contact the campus NetWare infrastructure, the Michigan tree, over IPX. To regain this same functionality, the NetWare client and server software on both machines would have to be upgraded to a version which supports NetWare over IP.
As another example, a Macintosh computer configured to use AppleTalk may frequently connect to both a local office printer and a printer in another building within the College. After the backbone configuration change has taken place, only the local printer will be visible in the Chooser. Again, to restore connectivity to the remote printer, both the Macintosh and the printer would need to be upgraded to connect to each other over IP. Depending on the model of computer and printer involved, it may not be possible to upgrade the existing equipment. It may have to be replaced.
A fairly common, cross-platform situation exists throughout the College that is of particular note. CAEN maintains two NetWare servers for print spooling which many departments use. Many Windows-based workstations have been configured to print to these spoolers over IPX, using the server names \\caen-spool5 and \\caen-spool6. The spoolers then forward the print jobs over AppleTalk to printers throughout the College. After the network backbone change, these centrally-located spoolers will not be reachable by the workstations over IPX, nor will they be able to reach the printers over AppleTalk. It will be necessary to upgrade or replace the computers and the printers involved so that they can communicate directly with each other over IP for printing to continue.
CAEN is announcing this change to the network backbone configuration well over a year in advance in order to give faculty and staff the time necessary to evaluate their current equipment and upgrade software and/or replace hardware as needed. Most of the computer and printer hardware now being sold is IP-capable. Windows 2000 supports IP-based printing natively, for example. But a large number of computers already installed in the College may need to have software upgraded or even replaced with new equipment in order to connect to the network using IP. It may also be necessary to replace many of the printers in the College that are only capable of accepting print jobs over AppleTalk.
It is also important that any new computers and printers purchased for use on the college network be verified before purchase to be IP-capable.
Your departmental computing staff have been aware of this upcoming change for some time now, and should be able to assist you in evaluating your computers and printers. Future CAEN News articles also will include information on potential software upgrades and equipment configurations that will result in successful IP-only computing and printing.
