ZyXEL Communications P-861H-G1, User Manual, Page: 169 / 341

Prestige 861H Series User’s Guide
Chapter 19 Bridging Setup 168
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H A P T E R
19
Bridging Setup
This chapter shows you how to configure the bridging parameters of your Prestige.
19.1 Bridging 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) address. Bridging allows the Prestige
to transport packets of network layer protocols that it does not route, for example, 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 on your network. For IP, enable the routing if you need it; do not bridge what the Prestige
can route.
19.2
Bridge Ethernet Setup
Basically, all non-local packets are bridged to the WAN. Your Prestige does not support IPX.
19.2.1
Remote Node Bridging Setup
Follow the procedure in another section to configure the protocol-independent parameters in
Menu 11.1 – Remote Node Profile . For bridging-related parameters, you need to configure
Menu 11.3 – Remote Node Network Layer Options .
1 To setup Menu 11.3 – Remote Node Network Layer Options shown in the next figure,
follow these steps:
2 In menu 11.1, make sure the Bridge field is set to Yes .