Windows 2000 and IPX Routing

An Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) router is a combination of an IPX routing agent and a Service Advertising Protocol (SAP) agent. The IPX routing agent routes IPX packets between IPX networks and maintains its routing table using Routing Information Protocol (RIP) for IPX. The SAP agent collects and distributes SAP information (a list of services available on the network and their corresponding IPX internetwork addresses) and responds to client SAP requests. For more information about the IPX router components in Microsoft® Windows® 2000, see "Routing and Remote Access Service" in this book.

Microsoft® Windows NT® Server version 4.0 and earlier provided a SAP agent service that allowed Windows NT applications and services, such as File and Print Services for NetWare or Microsoft® Exchange Server, to advertise their service names and addresses for NetWare clients. Microsoft® Windows NT® version 3.51 (Service Pack 2 and later) and Windows NT Server 4.0 provided an IPX routing agent using the RIP for IPX routing protocol. Windows 2000 Server provides an integrated IPX router with an IPX routing agent using the RIP for IPX routing protocol and a SAP agent.