3Com 2500 manual Associated AppleTalk interface

12-2 CHAPTER 12: ADMINISTERING APPLETALK® ROUTING

Administering	An AppleTalk interface defines the relationship between an AppleTalk
Interfaces	Virtual LAN (VLAN) and the AppleTalk network. Every AppleTalk interface
	has one AppleTalk VLAN associated with it. Each switching module has one
	AppleTalk interface defined for each subnet directly connected to it.
	You must first define a VLAN, as described in Chapter 8, before you define an
	associated AppleTalk interface.
	You can configure a maximum of 32 interfaces per router.

An AppleTalk interface has several elements associated with it:

■Seed Interface — You can configure the interface to be a seed interface or non-seed interface. Seed interfaces initialize the network with the configuration information the administrator enters. These include network range, address, zone name, and ports. Non-seed interfaces wait and listen for a seed interface and then take this configuration initialization information from the first seed interface they detect. After the non-seed interface obtains a network configuration, it begins to participate in the routing of the network.

■Network Range — A range of numbers used to designate a network segment’s identity. This element allows the physical segment between two LANplex systems to be a range of multiple networks.

■Address — The AARP address based on the network range and the network node (1-253).

■Zone — The default zone name, as well as up to 15 additional defined zones.

■State — This is the status of the AppleTalk interface, which indicates whether the interface is available for communications (up) or unavailable (down).

■VLAN Index— The number of the AppleTalk VLAN associated with the AppleTalk interface. The VLAN index indicates which bridge ports are associated with the AppleTalk interface. When the menu prompts you for this option, it displays a list of available VLAN indexes and their ports.