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Bind

This parameter is only needed if you are configuring the server machine with multiple adapters capable of supporting the TCP/IP protocol stack. If there is only one network adapter in the machine, then you can always omit this parameter.

The “Bind” parameter is used to specify the logical board(s) to which the TCP/IP protocol stack should bind. If this parameter is not given, then the TCP/IP protocol stack binds with the first logical board that uses a frame type supported by TCP/IP. Frame types which support TCP/IP for Ethernet and token-ring networks are:

Ethernet
Ethernet_II
Ethernet_SNAP
Token-Ring
Token-Ring_SNAP

The 16-bit implementation of the TCP/IP protocol stack (TCPIP.EXE) will bind to only a single logical board associated with any board instance, regardless of how many logical boards are available for that board instance. (The 32-bit implementation of Novell's IPX protocol stack does not have this limitation.) The TCP/IP protocol stack can bind to a maximum of four (4) logical boards, where each of those logical boards is related to a separate board instance.

The “Bind” parameter may be given in short form or long form. The short form looks like:

Bind NE2000

In this example, the “Bind” parameter directs the TCP/IP stack to bind with a logical board from the first TCP/IP-supporting logical board associated with an NE2000 board instance. This is useful when there are two or more different board instances which are all capable of supporting TCP/IP but only one of them is intended to use the TCP/IP stack. The short form of the “Bind” parameter will direct the TCP/IP stack to bind to a logical board associated with the desired board instance.

The long form of the “Bind” parameter must be used whenever there are multiple board instances which will be using the TCP/IP protocol stack. The long form looks like this:

Bind NE2000 #1 Ethernet_II EXEC_NET

The required values are: board driver name, board instance, frame type, and a network name. With the exception of the last value, the purpose of the long form of the “Bind” parameter clearly is to designate a specific logical board, or {board instance, frame type} pairing, to which the TCP/IP stack should bind.

The final value, the network name, has meaning only in conjunction with other parameters within the “Protocol TCPIP” section. Because there is only one logical board per board instance that can be bound by the TCP/IP protocol stack, the network name value can be used to refer uniquely to the physical network attached to each network board. Other TCP/IP parameters will then use the network name value to associate IP addressing information with each network board.

The following example shows the “Link Driver” and “Protocol TCPIP” sections needed to support TCP/IP on two different network boards (some of the parameters shown have yet to be discussed in later paragraphs):

Link Driver NE2000
[hardware settings as needed]
Frame Ethernet_SNAP

Link Driver TOKEN
[hardware settings as needed]
Frame Token-Ring_SNAP

Protocol TCPIP
IP_Address 204.250.100.1 EXEC_NET
IP_NetMask 255.255.255.0 EXEC_NET
Bind NE2000 #1 Ethernet_SNAP EXEC_NET

IP_Address 197.235.19.104 SALES_NET
IP_NetMask 255.255.255.128 SALES_NET
IP_Router 197.235.19.129 SALES_NET
Bind TOKEN #1 Token-Ring_SNAP SALES_NET

TCP_Sockets 32
TCP_Window 598

By a chain of associations, the NE2000 board is connected to an Ethernet network named “EXEC_NET” and the TOKEN board is connected to a token-ring network named “SALES_NET”. Without the network names, the TCP/IP protocol stack would not know which board was assigned which IP address and related information.