ZyXEL Communications 641 manual Bridging Setup, Bridging in General, Bridge Ethernet Setup

Prestige 641 ADSL Internet Access Router

Chapter 7

Bridging Setup

This chapter shows you how to configure the bridging parameters of your Prestige.

7.1Bridging in General

Bridging bases the forwarding decision on the MAC (Media Access Control), or hardware address, while routing does it on the network layer (IP or IPX) address. Bridging allows the Prestige 641 to transport packets of network layer protocols that the Prestige 641 does not route, e.g., SNA, from one network to another. The caveat is that, compared to routing, bridging generates more traffic for the same network layer protocol and it also demands more CPU cycles and memory.

For efficiency reasons, do not turn on bridging unless you need to support protocols other than IP and IPX on your network. For IP and IPX, enable the respective routing if you need it; do not bridge what the Prestige 641 can route.

7.2Bridge Ethernet Setup

Basically, all non-local packets are bridged to the WAN; however, your Prestige 641 applies special handling for certain IPX packets to reduce the number of calls, depending on the setting of the Handle IPX field.

Bridging Setup 7-1