It is evident that IP (Version 4) is becoming the dominant network protocol around the world. The Internet has been running IP since its invention. And Unix and Microsoft software (like Win98, WinNT4 and etc) have been supporting IP for quite a while and they have been running very stably. The native support of IP in Apple Macintoshes and Novell Netware 5 also denote the dominance of IP.

In order to simplify the support of the Campus Network Backbone and enable it to run more reliably and stably, we will disable the routing support of all non-IP network protocols starting from Mar 1 2002. The schedule is as follows:

Jan 3 2002: Decommission of IPX routing over the campus network
Mar 1 2002: Decommission of AppleTalk routing over the campus network

That is, our Backbone will be an IP-only Backbone Network from March and onwards.
We foresee no problems will be caused to most of our users except those who offer services to other departments using non-IP protocols or who use non-IP protocols to do their work across the Backbone. If you are not sure whether you have been affected by this exercise, please contact your LAN administrator for details.

On the contrary, if the LAN administrator likes to get more information about this implementation, please contact the Data Communication and Network Section for further information. We will offer you guidance in this regard.

Nevertheless, even if we only support IP routing on the Backbone, you can still run different network protocols in the networks of your own departments. Hence, you do not need to worry if you still run, for example, Netware 3 to serve the users of your own departments after the above dates.