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Applications
2.4
— Orbitor 6000 Installation & Applications Guide
Configure as an Ethernet Bridge
An Ethernet bridge intelligently forwards LAN traffic to remotely connected LANs across
the Wide Area Network (WAN).
Figure 2-1 Bridged Local Area Networks
Ethernet bridges simply forward information based on Ethernet MAC addresses. If a LAN
packet is destined for a device located on a remote LAN, the bridge will forward that
packet to the remote LAN. If a LAN packet is destined for a device located on the local
LAN, the bridge will ignore the packet.
Ethernet bridges also communicate to each other using what is called the Spanning Tree
Protocol (STP). STP is used to prevent loops in a network which cause LAN traffic to be
re-broadcast again and again causing network congestion.
The Orbitor 6000 is pre-configured to operate as an Ethernet bridge compatible with the
IEEE 802.1d Spanning Tree Protocol definitions. This means that without configuration
modifications, the Orbitor 6000 will bridge Ethernet traffic to its partner bridges when the
Wide Area Network (WAN) connection has been established.
The Orbitor 6000 also is pre-configured as an IPX router. This means that if you
wish to bridge IPX traffic instead of routing it, you must disable the IPX routing
function of the Orbitor 6000. Once IPX routing has been disabled, all IPX traffic will
be bridged between partner bridges on the WAN.