May 20th, 1998

The networking equipment has been placed on order for the Public Affairs building.  Initially, all ports will be 10Mb switched connections.  100Mb will be available for an additional $5 a month charge on a very limited case by case basis until the end of the year when it will be offered to all users.

This is the first time that end user stations have been attached to switched devices.  With this upgraded network comes a MANDATORY change to ALL workstations which use the NOVELL (IPX/SPX) protocols in ANY way.  You must change the Novell frame type from AUTO to 802.3 under the Network control panel in the IPX section.  Due to the traffic isolation properties of switches, workstations directly attached to switches cannot automatically determine the appropriate frame type in use on a network in a dependable manner.  Failure to make this change will result in intermittent, slow, or non-existent service from Novell servers or any other processes using IPX/SPX to communicate.

For Windows NT: START; CONTROL PANEL; NETWORK; PROTOCOLS; NWLINK IPX/SPX; MANUAL FRAME TYPE; ADD; 802.3; ADD… and back out. Be sure to leave the network number on 00000 as this is used only by machines acting as a Novell server, not a client.

For Windows 95: START; CONTROL PANEL; NETWORK; IPX/SPX-COMPATIBLE; PROPERTIES; ADVANCED; FRAME TYPE; select 802.3; OK… and back out.