- To configure AppleTalk to work on a WAN, you must configure only one side of the WAN connection to initiate outgoing calls, with the exception of X.25 permanent virtual circuits. Therefore, a WAN call destination is required. The other side of the WAN connection should be configured to receive incoming calls. If you have both ends initiate calls to each other on the same port and the WAN data link used is PPP, you might see the following message:
Retrying call for target name
call_name . Call attempt failed because the selected port is currently in use.
Check whether a connection to the remote server already exists, and reconfigure the connection as needed.
- If you are running AppleTalk on X.25 at 19.2 Kbps or faster, change the Default Inbound Packet Size option and the Default Outbound Packet Size option in NIASCFG from the default of 128 bytes to 1,024 bytes (parameter path: Select Configure NIAS > Protocols and Routing > Network Interfaces > a specific interface > Profile). Press F3 to edit the profile and select Packet Level Parameters. This change increases performance.
- AppleTalk functions over PPP at 1,200 baud or faster. AppleTalk can function only over X.25 at 2,400 baud or faster.
- If you are running an AppleTalk numbered WAN link (PPP numbered, PPP-ISDN numbered, ATM multiaccess, frame relay multiaccess, or X.25 multiaccess) between two routers, both ends of the link must be configured with the same network number (or range of numbers) and zone name. Otherwise, the routers do not exchange routing information. This results in error messages indicating network number conflicts and increases in the Bad DDP Length or results in No Route Found statistics in ATCON indicating dropped packets (parameter path: Select Packet Statistics). Similar results appear when you configure a numbered or multiaccess WAN link to connect to an unnumbered link on another router.
- Increase the Routing Update Timer period for outgoing calls in NIASCFG from the default of 10 seconds to anywhere between 60 and 300 seconds when you are using links below 19.2 Kbps (parameter path: Select Configure NIAS > Protocols and Routing > Bindings > a specific binding > WAN Call Destinations). This increase maximizes data throughput by minimizing the number of routing information packets sent through the link.
WARNING: By increasing the Router Update Timer period, you adversely affect the amount of time it takes a network to converge after a change of topology.
- If an internal network is configured on a NetWare for AppleTalk router, the router's Name Binding Protocol (NBP) name resides on the default zone of the internal network. If the internal network is not configured, the NetWare for AppleTalk router name resides on the default zone of the LAN interface configured to provide application support. If the AppleTalk applications are configured to home on a nondefault zone of an external LAN interface, the router's NetWare AppleTalk stack and applications such as AFP Server will home to the specified nondefault zone. However, the NetWare router and SNMP Agent will always reside in the default zone.
- When configuring the AppleTalk seed state in NIASCFG (parameter path: Select Configure NIAS > Protocols and Routing > Bindings > a specific binding > Network Range and Zone configuration), you must verify that at least one seed router is on each AppleTalk network. If other seed routers are directly connected to the same network, all the network numbers and zone names must be configured the same.
