Editing Internetwork Packet Exchange (section)

===Comparison with IP===
The IPX network number is conceptually identical to the network part of the [[IP address]] (the parts with [[netmask]] bits set to 1); the node number has the same meaning as the bits of IP address with netmask bits set to 0. The difference is that the boundary between network and node part of address in IP is variable, while in IPX it is fixed. As the node address is usually identical to the MAC address of the network adapter, the [[Address Resolution Protocol]] is not needed in IPX.

For [[routing]], the entries in the IPX [[routing table]] are similar to IP routing tables; routing is done by network address, and for each network address a network:node of the next router is specified in a similar fashion an IP address/netmask is specified in IP routing tables.

There are three routing protocols available for IPX networks. In early IPX networks, a version of [[Routing Information Protocol]] (RIP) was the only available protocol to exchange routing information. Unlike RIP for [[Internet Protocol|IP]], it uses delay time as the main metric, retaining the hop count as a secondary metric. Since NetWare 3, the [[NetWare Link Services Protocol]] (NLSP) based on [[IS-IS]] is available, which is more suitable for larger networks. [[Cisco]] routers implement an IPX version of [[Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol|EIGRP]] protocol as well.<ref>{{Cite book | title = Troubleshooting Campus Networks: Practical Analysis of Cisco and LAN Protocols | first1 = Priscilla |last1 = Oppenheimer | first2 = Joseph | last2 = Bardwell |date = August 2002 | isbn = 978-0-471-21013-9 | publisher = John Wiley & Sons, Inc. | pages = 421–440}}</ref>